This bedstead fortunately was not so
bare as the one in the other room, although it had not been used for
many years, for an old mattress covered the boards with which it was
bottomed.
'Gang in there, Shargar. Ye'll be warmer there than upo' the
door-step ony gait. Pit aff yer shune.'
Shargar obeyed, full of delight at finding himself in such good
quarters. Robert went to a forsaken press in the room, and brought
out an ancient cloak of tartan, of the same form as what is now
called an Inverness cape, a blue dress-coat, with plain gilt
buttons, which shone even now in the all but darkness, and several
other garments, amongst them a kilt, and heaped them over Shargar as
he lay on the mattress. He then handed him the twopenny and the
penny loaves, which were all his stock had reached to the purchase
of, and left him, saying,--
'I maun awa' to my tay, Shargar. I'll fess ye a cauld tawtie het
again, gin Betty has ony. Lie still, and whatever ye do, dinna come
oot o' that.'
The last injunction was entirely unnecessary.
'Eh, Bob, I'm jist in haven!' said the poor creature, for his skin
began to feel the precious possibility of reviving warmth in the
distance.
Now that he had gained a new burrow, the human animal soon recovered
from his fears as well. It seemed to him, in the novelty of the
place, that he had made so many doublings to reach it, that there
could be no danger of even the mistress of the house finding him
out, for she could hardly be supposed to look after such a remote
corner of her dominions.
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