In Flagrante Delicto. 59 



was very penurious, and suspicious that he would be 

 taken advantage of. He had been told how wasteful 

 servant men were with horses' food, and to prevent 

 any such extravagance he had the allowance of corn 

 measured out for the week. The allowance might 

 have been enough for half-worked horses, but was 

 far from being so for those in full work. In con- 

 sequence, the animals soon began to lose flesh. To 

 remedy this as far as possible, David, who was quick 

 in sympathy with animals in general, and with horses 

 in particular, rose every morning between three and 

 four o'clock, and gave them a feed of the un winnowed 

 corn from the barn. Sandy found what he was doing, 

 and told the laird. What followed Mr. Robertson 

 thus describes : 



" One morning when I was coming from the barn 

 to the stable, the laird came out from his hiding-place 

 and caught me by the neck, and said 



" ' You thief, you are stealing my corn/ 



" ' And giving it to your horses,' I said. 



" He replied that I had no right to do so, and that 

 it was against his orders. 



" That was true, I said, but that I had done it with 

 the best intentions for his interest, and that it was 

 not, as he seemed to think, any advantage to me, but 

 a great deal of unpleasant trouble, and that the only 

 solace I had had was that I was doing good to his 

 horses, and, as I thought, benefiting himself. I said 

 too that, for all that I was giving them, they were 

 still not in the condition that a farmer's horses should 

 be ; and if they did not get their proper food they 

 could not do their proper work. 



