‘You see, I want a pair of boots, Mr. Wilfred, and I may as well get ’em in Yass while I’m about it.’
‘Oh, certainly,’ assented Wilfred, thinking that he never saw the veteran look more respectable. ‘The air of Warbrok agrees with you, Dick; I never saw you look better.’
‘Work allers did agree with me, sir,’ he answered modestly, unhitching his bridle with a slight appearance of haste, as Mrs. Evans came labouring up and glanced suspiciously at the notes which he placed in his pocket.
‘I hope he’ll look as well when he comes back,’ said she, with a meaning glance; ‘but if he and that old rascal Tom gets together, they’ll ——’
‘Never you mind, old woman,’ interrupted Dick, riding off, ‘you look after them young pigs and give ’em the skim milk reg’lar. Tom Glendinning and I’ll be here to-morrow night, if I can find him.’
Mrs. Evans raised her hand in what might be accepted as a warning or a threatening gesture, and Wilfred, wondering at the old woman’s manner, betook himself to his daily duties.
‘A grumbling old creature,’ he soliloquised. ‘I don’t wonder that Dick is glad to get away from her tongue. She ought to be pleased that he should have a holiday occasionally.’
On the morning following Richard Evans’s departure, extra exertion was entailed upon Wilfred and Guy, as also upon Andrew Cargill, by reason of their having to divide the milking of his proportion of the cows among them. As Dick was a rapid and exhaustive operator, his absence was felt, if not regretted. As they returned from the troublesome task, a full hour later than usual, Wilfred consoled himself by the thought that the next day would find this indispensable personage at his post.
‘I wadna hae thocht,’ confessed Andrew, ‘that the auld, rough-tongued carle’s absence could hae made siccan a camstairy. But he’s awfu’ skeely wi’ thae wild mountain queys, and kens brawly hoo tae daiker them. It’s no said for naught that the children o’ the warld are wiser in their generation than the children o’ licht. He’ll be surely back the morn’s morn.’
Explaining Dick’s eminence in the milking-yard by this classification, and undoubtedly including himself in the latter category, Andrew betook himself to an outer apartment, where the scrupulous Jeanie had provided full means of ablution.