And when he recovered from
these hurts he trotted about, making the circuit below the windows.
He could not speak there, because he had been forbidden, but he
could wag his tail and look up to show his friendliness. And
whether the children saw him or not they knew he was always there
after sunset, keeping watch and ward, and "lanely" because his
master had gone away to heaven; and so they called out to him
sweetly and clearly:
"A gude nicht to ye, Bobby."
XII.
In one thing Mr. Traill had been mistaken: the grand folk did not
forget Bobby. At the end of five years the leal Highlander was not
only still remembered, but he had become a local celebrity.
Had the grave of his haunting been on the Pentlands or in one of
the outlying cemeteries of the city Bobby must have been known to
few of his generation, and to fame not at all. But among
churchyards Greyfriars was distinguished. One of the historic
show-places of Edinburgh, and in the very heart of the Old Town, it
was never missed by the most hurried tourist, seldom left
unvisited, from year to year, by the oldest resident. Names on its
old tombs had come to mean nothing to those who read them, except
as they recalled memorable records of love, of inspiration, of
courage, of self-sacrifice. And this being so, it touched the
imagination to see, among the marbles that crumbled toward the dust
below, a living embodiment of affection and fidelity.
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