'The morn's mornin'. I believe we're gaun into camp immediately.'
'Oho! So ye'll be wantin' to be quit o' yer job here at once. Weel, weel, if ye feel it's yer duty to gang, lad, I suppose it's mines to let ye gang as cheery as I can. But—I maun tell yer aunt.' Mr. Purdie rose.
Macgregor, smiled dubiously. 'She'll no' be pleased onyway.'
'Aw, ye never can tell what'll please yer aunt. At least, that's been ma experience for quarter o' a century. But it'll be best to tell her—through the 'phone, of course. A handy invention the 'phone. Bide here till I come back.'
In a few minutes he returned suppressing a smile.
'I couldna ha'e presumed frae her voice that she was delighted,' he reported; 'but she commanded me to gi'e ye five pound for accidental expenses, as she calls them, an' yer place here is to be preserved for ye, an' yer wages paid, even supposin' the war gangs on for fifty year.'
With these words Mr. Purdie placed five notes in his astonished nephew's hand and bade him begone.
'Ye maun tell yer mither instanter. I canna understan' what way ye didna tell her first.'
'I—I was feart I wud maybe be ower wee for the Glesca Hielanders,'
Macgregor explained.
'Ye seem to me to be a heid taller since yesterday. Weel, weel.
God bless ye an' so forth. Come back an' see me in the efternune.'