RAB AND HIS FRIENDS 



he was demolishing some adversary. He took 

 a walk with me every day, generally to the 

 Candlemaker Row ; but he was sombre and 

 mild ; declined doing battle, though some fit 

 cases offered, and indeed submitted to sundry 

 indignities ; and was always very ready to turn, 

 and came faster back, and trotted up the stair 

 with much lightness, and went straight to that 

 door. 



Jess, the mare, had been sent, with her 

 weather-worn cart, to Howgate, and had 

 doubtless her own dim and placid meditations 

 and confusions on the absence of her master 

 and Rab, and her unnatural freedom from the 

 road and her cart. 



For some days Ailie did well. The wound 

 healed " by the first intention" ; for, as James 

 said, " Oor Ailie's skin's ower clean to beil." 

 The students came in, quiet and anxious, and 

 surrounded her bed. She said she liked to 

 see their young, honest faces. The surgeon 

 dressed her, and spoke to her in his own short, 

 kind way, pitying her through his eyes, Rab 



