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SAITH THE LORD.'--An' the best o' 't is," he went on, willing, by a
touch of humour in the truth he had to speak, to help turn the tide
of Cosmo's wrath, "he'll tak' no more than's guid for the sinner;
whereas yersel', Cosmo, i' the tune ye're in noo, wad damn puir
auld Lick-my-loof for ever and ever! Man, he canna hurt me to the
worth o' sic a heap o' firin'!" Then changing his tone to absolute
seriousness, "Min' ye tu, Cosmo," he went on, "'at the maister never
threatent but aye left the thing, whatever it was, to him 'at
judges richteously. Ye want nothing but fair play, my son, an'
whether ye get it frae Lick-my-loof or no, there's ane winna haud
it frae ye. Ye 's get it, my son; ye 's get it! The maister 'll hae
a' thing set richt at the lang last; an' gien HE binna in a hurry,
we may weel bide. For mysel', the man has smitten me upo' the tae
cheek, an' may hae the tither to lat drive at whan he likes. It's
no worth liftin' my auld airm to haud aff the smack."
He laughed, and Cosmo laughed too--but grimly and out of tune. Then
the laird told him that just that piece of the road was an
improvement of his own, and had cost him a good bit of blasting: it
used to cross the stream twice before it got to the yard-gate. He
hardly thought, he said, that his lordship would like to have to
restore it; for, besides the expense, it would cost him so much out
of one of his best fields. In the meantime they must contrive how
to connect themselves with that part of the road which he dared not
touch. The worst of it was that there was no longer any direct
communication across the fields with James Gracie's cottage. To
follow the road was to make a tremendous round.
Grizzle being already in bed when Cosmo came home, learned nothing
that night of the evil news.
At break of day Cosmo was up to see what could be done, and found
that a few steps cut in the rocky terraces of the garden would
bring one with ease to the road. He set about it immediately, and
before breakfast-time had finished the job.
The rage and indignation of Grizzle when she learned what had been
done, far surpassed Cosmo's, and served to secure him from any
return of the attack. The flood of poetic abuse that she poured out
seemed inexhaustible, sweeping along with it tale after tale to the
prejudice of "that leein' Lick-my-loof." But, poetic as was her
speech, not a single rime did she utter for the space of an hour
during which she thus unloaded her heart.
"Ay!" she concluded, and thereafter sank into smouldering silence,
"there was a futpath there afore ye was born, laird, blast or no
blast; an' to that I can fess them 'at can beir testimony, ane o'
them bein' nane ither nor Jeames Gracie himsel', wha's ten lang
years aheid o' yer lairdship! an' lat me see man or dog 'at 'll
haud me ohn taen my wull o' my richts intil't! They canna hang me,
and for less I carena."
The schoolmaster was at length fit to resume his labours, and about
a week after the event just recorded, Cosmo ceased to attend the
school in his stead.
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