The Souter's Lamp, and Other Stories (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: MR. CARMENT'S NEW PRAYER " Geordie, dinna mak' a noise ! Coorie doon when ye're passin' the parlour window !" Geordie McAllum paused for a moment with his fingers on the sneck of the Manse gate. He could see nobody; but he knew that the command which had come to him in a loud whisper was from Rob Carment. With the instinctive loyalty only to be found among boys, he obeyed the order, and crept softly up the garden path, bending down as he passed below the parlour window so that no one might see him from within. When he reached the back-yard he found Rob waiting for him on the top of the water barrel, from which point of vantage he had been watching his progress from the burn at the angle of the turnip field up to the Manse gate. "What's wrang wi' ye?" he asked. For Geordie had the freedom of the Manse, and had not been accustomed to skulk under the windows like a criminal. "There's naethin' wrang. But they're at fetn'ly worship, and I dinna want them to ken I'm oot- bye." " Hoo are ye no' there yersel' ?" Geordie inquired in deep astonishment. To be able to escape from family worship at the Manse seemed something like a miracle to him. " I am there. At ony rate I wes there, but I slippit oot when Uncle Wullie got started wi' the prayer. He tak's a quarter o' an oor till't, and I'll be back afore he's through. But we maun'na be pittin' aff time. Hev ye gotten the mappy wi' ye ?" "Ay, here it's," and Geordie drew a little slate- coloured rabbit out of the leather school-bag that hung over his left shoulder. " Eh, losh, it's bonnie !" Rob exclaimed in unrestrained admiration as he took the mappy out of his friend's hands and began to stroke its long, soft ears. " I'll gie ye my knife and a dizen o' bools for't. Will ye swap?" " Ay, I'll swap. But ye promise...