192 FIELD AND TERN. 



Sandy^s assurances^ as lie issued forth with liis pole, 

 that the Doctor was "not forrard/^ He is such. an 

 early bird that they are never quite sure of him. 

 Catch him lingering among the blankets or near the 

 coffee-pot at dawn ! A mile-and-a-halPs walk, and 

 we v/ere on the Knoll at Haughhead, with nearly 

 half-a-hundred horsemen round us ; and up came the 

 Doctor, on Robin, at last. It was all Walter could 

 do to prevent his being greeted hj a regular " As- 

 sheton Smith^^ chorus, w^hich would have sent the 

 otter flying down-stream, if he had heard it. The 

 moon was still up, and the mist- wreaths were curling- 

 far too heavily along the river to permit of action ; 

 but it " lifted^^ about half-past three, and the Doctor 

 peeled, and, tying his coat, with the scarlet lining 

 outside, behind his saddle, as a token, set out to look 

 lor " my old friend, which has beat me these three 

 years.^^ 



At last we stood on the north bank of the Teviot, 

 and the deep bell of Malakhoff, who was whiter than 

 the mist, in winch he Avas working, rung out the 

 maiden note of the drag, when they were scarcely 

 over the first stretch of shingle, near the Trow Mill. 

 They were so busy and musical for a minute or two 

 by a willow-bed close to the dam, that some thought 

 he must be at home, or that the Doctor would again 

 have to prefer his celebrated request to be allowed to 

 crawl under a mill-wheel after an otter, because 

 '^ Pm smaller than a dog ; and I dursnH let them go 

 thereT That is even going beyond Admiral Ex- 



