In some strange way that no dog could understand, Bobby had been separated from Auld Jock that November morning.The tenant of Cauldbrae farm had driven the cart in, himself, and that was unusual.Immediately he had driven out again, leaving Auld Jock behind, and that was quite outside Bobby's brief experience of life.Beguiled to the lofty and coveted driver's seat where, with lolling tongue, he could view this interesting world between the horse's ears, Bobby had been spirited out of the city and carried all the way down and up to the hilltop toll-bar of Fairmilehead.
It could not occur to his loyal little heart that this treachery was planned nor, stanch little democrat that he was, that the farmer was really his owner, and that he could not follow a humbler master of his own choosing.He might have been carried to the distant farm, and shut safely in the byre with the cows for the night, but for an incautious remark of the farmer.With the first scent of the native heather the horse quickened his pace, and, at sight of the purple slopes of the Pentlands looming homeward, a fond thought at the back of the man's mind very naturally took shape in speech.
"Eh, Bobby; the wee lassie wull be at the tap o' the brae to race ye hame."Bobby pricked his drop ears.Within a narrow limit, and concerning familiar things, the understanding of human speech by these intelligent little terriers is very truly remarkable.At mention of the wee lassie he looked behind for his rough old friend and unfailing refuge.Auld Jock's absence discovered, Bobby promptly dropped from the seat of honor and from the cart tail, sniffed the smoke of Edinboro' town and faced right about.
To the farmer's peremptory call he returned the spicy repartee of a cheerful bark.It was as much as to say:
"Dinna fash yersel'! I ken what I'm aboot."After an hour's hard run back over the dipping and rising country road and a long quarter circuit of the city, Bobby found the high-walled, winding way into the west end of the Grassmarket.To a human being afoot there was a shorter cut, but the little dog could only retrace the familiar route of the farm carts.It was a notable feat for a small creature whose tufted legs were not more than six inches in length, whose thatch of long hair almost swept the roadway and caught at every burr and bramble, and who was still so young that his nose could not be said to be educated.
In the market-place he ran here and there through the crowd, hopefully investigating narrow closes that were mere rifts in precipices of buildings; nosing outside stairs, doorways, stables, bridge arches, standing carts, and even hob-nailed boots.He yelped at the crash of the gun, but it was another matter altogether that set his little heart to palpitating with alarm.It was the dinner-hour, and where was Auld Jock?
Ah! A happy thought: his master had gone to dinner!
A human friend would have resented the idea of such base desertion and sulked.But in a little dog's heart of trust there is no room for suspicion.The thought simply lent wings to Bobby's tired feet.As the market-place emptied he chased at the heels of laggards, up the crescent-shaped rise of Candlemakers Row, and straight on to the familiar dining-rooms.Through the forest of table and chair and human legs he made his way to the back, to find a soldier from the Castle, in smart red coat and polished boots, lounging in Auld Jock's inglenook.
Bobby stood stock still for a shocked instant.Then he howled dismally and bolted for the door.Mr.John Traill, the smooth-shaven, hatchet-faced proprietor, standing midway in shirtsleeves and white apron, caught the flying terrier between his legs and gave him a friendly clap on the side.
"Did you come by your ainsel' with a farthing in your silky-purse ear to buy a bone, Bobby? Whaur's Auld Jock?"A fear may be crowded back into the mind and stoutly denied so long as it is not named.At the good landlord's very natural question "Whaur's Auld Jock?" there was the shape of the little dog's fear that he had lost his master.With a whimpering cry he struggled free.Out of the door he went, like a shot.He tumbled down the steep curve and doubled on his tracks around the market-place.
At his onslaught, the sparrows rose like brown leaves on a gust of wind, and drifted down again.A cold mist veiled the Castle heights.From the stone crown of the ancient Cathedral of St.
