to be leaving him here the two days, Mr. Brown."

"Ye wullna leave 'im! Ye'll tak' 'im wi' ye, or I'll hae to put 'im oot.
Man, I couldna haud the place gin I brak the rules."

"You--will--no'--put--the--wee--dog--out!" Mr. Traill shook a playful,
emphatic finger under the big man's nose.

"Why wull I no'?"

"Because, man, you have a vera soft heart, and you canna deny it." It
was with a genial, confident smile that Mr. Traill made this terrible
accusation.

"Ma heart's no' so saft as to permit a bit dog to scandalize the deid."

"He's been here two days, you no' knowing it, and he has scandalized
neither the dead nor the living. He's as leal as ony Covenanter here,
and better conducted than mony a laird. He's no the quarrelsome kind,
but, man, for a principle he'd fight like auld Clootie." Here the
landlord's heat gave way to pure enjoyment of the situation. "Eh, I'd
like to see you put him out. It would be another Flodden Field."

The angry caretaker shrugged his broad shoulders.

"Ye can see it, gin ye stand by, in juist one meenit. Fecht as he may,
it wull soon be ower."

Mr. Traill laughed easily, and ventured the opinion that Mr. Brown's
bark was worse than his bite. As he went through the gateway he could
not resist calling back a challenge: "I daur you to do it."

Mr. Brown locked the gate, went sulkily into the lodge, lighted his
cutty pipe, and smoked it furiously. He read a Psalm with deliberation,
poked up an already bright fire, and glowered at his placid gude wife.
It was not to be borne--to be defied by a ten-inch-high terrier, and
dared, by a man a third under his own weight, to do his duty. After an
hour or so he worked himself up to the point of going out and slamming
the door.

At eight o'clock Mr. Traill found Bobby on the pavement outside the
locked gate. He was not sorry that the fortunes of unequal battle
had thrown the faithful little dog on his hospitality. Bobby begged
piteously to be put inside, but he seemed to understand at last that
the gate was too high for Mr. Traill to drop him over. He followed
the landlord up to the restaurant willingly. He may have thought this
champion had another solution of the difficulty, for when he saw the man
settle comfortably in a chair he refused to lie on the hearth. He ran to
the door and back, and begged and whined to be let out. For a long time
he stood dejectedly. He was not sullen, for he ate a light supper and
thanked his host with much p