I like respect, especially
in a young fellow towards an old one."
"Did he know you, for I have not that pleasure?" said Mrs. Boyd,
polite, though puzzled. For the old man did not look quite like
a gentleman, and spoke with the strong accent of an uneducated
person, yet he had a kindly expression, and seemed honest and
well-meaning, though decidedly "canny."
"I cannot say he knew me, but he remembered me, which was civil
of him. And then I minded the lad as the one that had come to me
for work a week or two ago, and I took his name and address.
That's your son's writing?" he jumbled out and showed a scrap of
paper. "It's bona fide, isn't it?
"And he really is in search of work? He hasn't run away from
home, or been turned out by his father for misconduct, or
anything of that sort? He isn't a scamp, or a ne'er-do-weel?"
"I hope he doesn't look like it," said Mrs. Boyd, proudly.
"No, ma'am; you're right, he doesn't. He carries his character
in his face which, maybe, is better than in his pocket. It was
that which made me ask his name and address, though I could do
nothing for him."
"Then you were the gentleman who told him you couldn't keep a dog
and bark yourself?" said Mrs. Boyd, amused, and just a shade
hopeful.
"Precisely. Nor can I. It would have been cool impudence in a
lad to come and ask to be taught his work first and then paid for
it, if he hadn't been so very much in earnest that I was rather
sorry for him. I'm inclined to believe, from the talk I had with
him at the foot of the brae to-day, that he is a young dog that
would bark with uncommon little teaching.
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