Betty
was so dumfoundered with their impudence that she could not say a
word. She did make haste with the dinner, though, and revealed her
indignation only in her manner of putting the things on the table.
As the boys left her, Robert contented himself with the single
hint:
'Betty, Bodyfauld 's i' the perris o' Kettledrum. Min' ye that.'
Betty glowered and said nothing.
But the delight of the walk of three miles over hill and dale and
moor and farm to Mr. Lammie's! The boys, if not as wild as
colts--that is, as wild as most boys would have been--were only the
more deeply excited. That first summer walk, with a goal before
them, in all the freshness of the perfecting year, was something
which to remember in after days was to Falconer nothing short of
ecstasy. The westering sun threw long shadows before them as they
trudged away eastward, lightly laden with the books needful for the
morrow's lessons. Once beyond the immediate purlieus of the town
and the various plots of land occupied by its inhabitants, they
crossed a small river, and entered upon a region of little hills,
some covered to the top with trees, chiefly larch, others
cultivated, and some bearing only heather, now nursing in secret its
purple flame for the outburst of the autumn. The road wound
between, now swampy and worn into deep ruts, now sandy and broken
with large stones. Down to its edge would come the dwarfed oak, or
the mountain ash, or the silver birch, single and small, but lovely
and fresh; and now green fields, fenced with walls of earth as green
as themselves, or of stones overgrown with moss, would stretch away
on both sides, sprinkled with busily-feeding cattle.
Pages:
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190