When he put Kelpie in her stall the last time for a season, and ran into the house to get his plaid for Lizzy, who was waiting him near the tunnel, he bethought himself that he had better take with him also what other of his personal requirements he could carry. He looked about therefore, and finding a large carpet-bag in one of the garret rooms, hurried into it some of his clothes—amongst them the Highland dress he had worn as henchman to the marquis, and added the great Lossie pipes his father had given to old Duncan as well, but which the piper had not taken with him when he left Lossie House. The said Highland dress he now resolved to put on, as that in which latterly Florimel had been most used to see him: in it he would watch his opportunity of gaining admission to the house.
The next morning Blue Peter made his appearance early. They went out together, spent the day in sight-seeing, and, on Malcolm’s part chiefly, in learning the topography of London.
In Hyde Park Malcolm told his friend that he had sent for Kelpie.
“She’ll be the deid o’ ye i’ thae streets, as fu’ o’ wheels as the sea o’ fish: twize I’ve been ’maist gr’un to poother o’ my ro’d here,” said Peter.
“Ay, but ye see, oot here amo’ the gentry it’s no freely sae ill, an’ the ro’ds are no a’ stane; an’ here, ye see, ’s the place whaur they come, leddies an’ a’, to ha’e their rides thegither. What I’m fleyt for is ’at she’ll be brackin’ legs wi’ her deevilich kickin’.”
“Haud her upo’ dry strae an’ watter for a whilie, till her banes begin to cry oot for something to hap them frae the cauld: that’ll quaiet her a bit,” said Peter.
“It’s a’ ye ken!” returned Malcolm. “She’s aye the wau-natur’d, the less she has to ate. Na, na; she maun be weel lined. The deevil in her maun lie warm, or she’ll be neither to haud nor bin’. There’s nae doobt she’s waur to haud in whan she’s in guid condeetion; but she’s nane sae like to tak a body by the sma’ o’ the back, an’ shak the inside oot o’ ’im, as she maist did ae day to the herd-laddie at the ferm, only he had an auld girth aboot the mids o’ ’im for a belt, an’ he tuik the less scaith.”
“Cudna we gang an’ see the maister the day?” said Blue Peter, changing the subject.
He meant Mr Graham, the late schoolmaster of Portlossie, whom the charge of heretical teaching had driven from the place.
“We canna weel du that till we hear whaur he is. The last time Miss Horn h’ard frae him, he was changin’ his lodgin’s, an’ ye see the kin’ o’ a place this Lon’on is,” answered Malcolm.