him even at the Grange.

"I couldna trust ma Wullie at hame alone wi' the dear lad," was his
explanation. "I ken wed I'd come back to find a wee corpse on the
floor, and David singin':

'My heart is sair, I daur na tell,

My heart is sair for somebody.'

Ay, and he'd be sair elsewhere by the time I'd done wi' him--he!
he!"

The sneer at David's expense was as characteristic as it was unjust.
For though the puppy and the boy were already sworn enemies, yet
the lad would have scorned to harm so small a foe. And many a
tale did David tell at Kenmuir of Red Wull's viciousness, of his
hatred of him (David), and his devotion to his master; how,
whether immersed in the pig-bucket or chasing the fleeting rabbit,
he would desist at once, and bundle, panting, up at his master's
call; how he routed the tomcat and drove him from the kitchen;
and how he clambered on to David's bed and pinned him
murderously by the nose.

Of late the relations between M'Adam and James Moore had been
unusually strained. Though they were neighbors, communications
between the two were of the rarest; and it was for the first time for
many a long day that, on an afternoon shortly after Red Wull had
come into his possession, M'Adam entered the yard of Kenmuir,
bent on girding at the master for an alleged trespass at the Stony