'Oh,' replied Donald, 'a small tasteful cottage. That would suit well for the present, I think. What do you think, Murdoch?'
'I think with you,' I replied.
After having heard Moncrieff speaking so much about cutting coats according to cloth and looking before 'louping,' and all the rest of it, we were hardly prepared to hear him on the present occasion say boldly,
'And I think with Dugald.'
'Bravo, Moncrieff!' cried Dugald. 'I felt sure—'
'Bide a wee, though, lad. Ca' canny.[7] Now listen, the lot o' ye. Ye see, Murdoch man, your proposed cottage 157 would cost a good bit of money and time and trouble, and when you thought of a bigger place, down that cottage must come, with an expense of more time and more trouble, even allowing that money was of little object. Besides, where are you going to live after your cottage is knocked down and while your mansion is building? So I say Dugald is right to some extent. Begin building your big house bit by bit.'
'In wings?'
'Preceesely, sirs; ye can add and add as you like, and as you can afford it.'
It was now our time to cry, 'Bravo, Moncrieff!'
'I wonder, Donald, we didn't think of this plan.'