Page:Tales of my landlord (Volume 2).djvu/51

 Lady Margaret had herself set forth, and her authority could not be appealed to. In this dilemma, the good genius of the old butler suggested an experiment.

"He had seen mony a braw callant, far less than Goose Gibbie, fight brawly under Montrose. What for no take Goose Gibbie?"

This was a half-witted lad, of very small stature, who had a kind of charge of the poultry under the old hen-wife; for in a Scottish family of that day there was a wonderful substitution of labour. This urchin being sent for from the stubble-field, was ha3tily muffled in the buff coat, and girded rather to than with the sword of a full-grown man, his little legs plunged into jack-boots, and a steel cap put upon his head, which seemed, from its size, as if they were going to extinguish him. Thus accoutred, he was hoisted, at his own earnest request, upon the tamest horse of the party; and prompted and supported by old Gudyill the butler, as his front file, he