"Besides, we should like to see you do it," said Miss Kitty.
"You can look in through the window, miss. I must fasten the door, or he"ll be out."
"I should never forgive myself if he hurt you, John," said Miss Betty, irresolutely, for she was very anxious to have the c.o.c.katoo and perch in full glory in the parlour.
"He"ll none hurt me, miss," said John, with a cheerful smile on his rosy face. "I likes him, and he"ll like me."
This settled the matter. John was left with the c.o.c.katoo. He locked the door, and the little ladies went into the garden and peeped through the window.
They saw John Broom approach the cage, on which the c.o.c.katoo put up his crest, opened his beak slowly, and snarled, and Miss Betty tapped on the window and shook her black satin workbag.
"Don"t go near him!" she cried. But John Broom paid no attention.
"What are you putting up that top-knot of yours at me for?" said he to the c.o.c.katoo. "Don"t ye know your own friends? I"m going to let ye out, I am. You"re going on to your perch, you are."
"Eh, but you"re a bonny creature!" he added, as the c.o.c.katoo filled the cage with snow and sulphur flutterings.
"Keep away, keep away!" screamed the little ladies, playing a duet on the window panes.
"Out with you!" said John Broom, as he unfastened the cage door.
And just when Miss Betty had run round, and as she shouted through the keyhole, "Open the door, John Broom. We"ve changed our minds. We"ve decided to keep it in its cage," the c.o.c.katoo strode solemnly forth on his eight long toes.
"Pretty c.o.c.ky!" said he.
When Miss Betty got back to the window, John Broom had just made an injudicious grab at the steel chain, on which Pretty c.o.c.ky flew fiercely at him, and John, burying his face in his arms, received the attack on his thick poll, laughing into his sleeves and holding fast to the chain, whilst the c.o.c.katoo and the little ladies screamed against each other.
"It"ll break your leg--you"ll tear its eyes out!" cried Miss Kitty.
"Miss Kitty means that you"ll break its leg, and it will tear your eyes out," Miss Betty explained through the gla.s.s. "John Broom! Come away!
Lock it in! Let it go!"
But c.o.c.ky was now waddling solemnly round the room, and John Broom was creeping after him, with the end of the chain in one hand, and the perch in the other, and in a moment more he had joined the chain and the ring, and just as Miss Betty was about to send for the constable and have the door broken open, c.o.c.ky--driven into a corner--clutched his perch and was raised triumphantly to his place in the bow-window.
He was now a parlour pet, and John Broom saw little of him. This vexed him, for he had taken a pa.s.sionate liking for the bird. The little ladies rewarded him well for his skill, but this brought him no favour from the farm-bailiff, and matters went on as ill as before.
One day the c.o.c.katoo got his chain entangled, and Miss Kitty promptly advanced to put it right. She had unfastened that end which secured it to the perch, when c.o.c.ky, who had been watching the proceeding with much interest, dabbed at her with his beak. Miss Kitty fled, but with great presence of mind shut the door after her. She forgot, however, that the window was open, in front of which stood the c.o.c.katoo scanning the summer sky with his fierce eyes, and flapping himself in the breeze.
And just as the little ladies ran into the garden, and Miss Kitty was saying, "One comfort is, sister Betty, that it"s quite safe in the room, till we can think what to do next," he bowed his yellow crest, spread his n.o.ble wings, and sailed out into the aether.
In ten minutes the whole able-bodied population of the place was in the grounds of Lingborough, including the farm-bailiff.
The c.o.c.katoo was on the top of a fir-tree, and a fragment of the chain was with him, for he had broken it, and below on the lawn stood the little ladies, who, with the unfailing courage of women in a hopeless cause, were trying to dislodge him by waving their pocket-handkerchiefs and crying "sh!"
He looked composedly down out of one eye for some time, and then he began to move.
"I think it"s coming down now," said Miss Kitty.
But in a quarter of a minute, c.o.c.ky had sailed a quarter of a mile, and was rocking himself on the top of an old willow-tree. And at this moment John Broom joined the crowd which followed him.
"I"m thinking he"s got his chain fast," said the farm-bailiff; "if onybody that understood the beastie daured to get near him----"
"I"ll get him," said John Broom, casting down his hat.
"Ye"ll get yer neck thrawed," said the farm-bailiff.
"We won"t hear of it," said the little ladies.
But to their horror, John Broom kicked off his shoes, after which he spat upon his hands (a shock which Miss Kitty thought she never could have survived), and away he went up the willow.
It was not an easy tree to climb, and he had one or two narrow escapes, which kept the crowd breathless, but he shook the hair from his eyes, moistened his hands afresh, and went on. The farm-bailiff"s far-away heart was stirred. No Scotchman is insensible to gallantry. And courage is the only thing a "canny" Scot can bear to see expended without return.
"John Broom," screamed Miss Betty, "come down! I order, I command you to come down."
The farm-bailiff drew his speckled hat forward to shade his upward gaze, and folded his arms.
"Dinna call on him, leddies," he said, speaking more quickly than usual.
"Dinna mak him turn his head. Steady, lad! Grip wi" your feet. Spit on your pawms, man."
Once the boy trod on a rotten branch, and as he drew back his foot, and it came crashing down, the farm-bailiff set his teeth, and Miss Kitty fainted in Thomasina"s arms.
"I"ll reward anyone who"ll fetch him down," sobbed Miss Betty. But John Broom seated himself on the same branch as the c.o.c.katoo, and undid the chain and prepared his hands for the downward journey.
"You"ve got a rare perch, this time," said he. And Pretty c.o.c.ky crept towards him, and rubbed its head against him and chuckled with joy.
What dreams of liberty in the tree tops, with John Broom for a playfellow, pa.s.sed through his crested head, who shall say? But when he found that his friend meant to take him prisoner, he became very angry and much alarmed. And when John Broom grasped him by both legs and began to descend, c.o.c.ky pecked him vigorously. But the boy held the back of his head towards him, and went steadily down.
"Weel done!" roared the farm-bailiff. "Gently, lad! Gude save us! ha"e a care o" yoursen. That"s weel. Keep your pow at him. Dinna let the beast get to your een."
But when John Broom was so near the ground as to be safe, the farm-bailiff turned wrathfully upon his son, who had been gazing open-mouthed at the sight which had so interested his father.
"Ye look weel standing gawping here, before the leddies," said he, "wasting the precious hours, and bringing your father"s grey hairs wi"
sorrow to the grave; and John Broom yonder shaming ye, and you not so much as thinking to fetch the perch for him, ye lazy loon. Away wi" ye and get it, before I lay a stick about your shoulders."
And when his son had gone for the perch, and John Broom was safely on the ground, laughing, bleeding, and triumphant, the farm-bailiff said,--
"Ye"re a bauld chiel, John Broom, I"ll say that for ye."
INTO THE MIST.
Unfortunately the favourable impression produced by "the gipsy lad"s"
daring soon pa.s.sed from the farm-bailiff"s mind. It was partly effaced by the old jealousy of the little ladies favour. Miss Betty gave the boy no less than four silver shillings, and he ungraciously refused to let the farm-bailiff place them in a savings bank for him.
Matters got from bad to worse. The farming man was not the only one who was jealous, and John Broom himself was as idle and restless as ever.
Though, if he had listened respectfully to the Scotchman"s counsel, or shown any disposition to look up to and be guided by him, much might have been overlooked. But he made fun of him and made a friend of the cowherd. And this latter most manifest token of low breeding vexed the respectable taste of the farm-bailiff.