The House With the Green Shutters Read Online Free PDF

would scarce have recognized
the weary trollop of the kitchen.
    "What's the matter, Johnny dear?" she cried, with a fierce glance at
Gilmour.
    "Gilmour hut me!" he bellowed angrily.
    "Ye muckle lump!" she cried shrilly, the two scraggy muscles of her neck
standing out long and thin as she screamed; "ye muckle lump—to strike a
defenceless wean!—Dinna greet, my lamb; I'll no let him meddle
ye.—Jock Gilmour, how daur ye lift your finger to a wean of mine? But
I'll learn ye the better o't! Mr. Gourlay'll gie
you
the order to
travel ere the day's muckle aulder. I'll have no servant about
my
hoose to ill-use
my
bairn."
    She stopped, panting angrily for breath, and glared at her darling's
enemy.
    "
Your
servant!" cried Gilmour in contempt. "Ye're a nice-looking
object to talk about servants." He pointed at her slovenly dress and
burst into a blatant laugh: "Huh, huh, huh!"
    Mr. Gourlay had followed more slowly from the kitchen, as befitted a man
of his superior character. He heard the row well enough, but considered
it beneath him to hasten to a petty squabble.
    "What's this?" he demanded with a widening look. Gilmour scowled at the
ground.
    "This!" shrilled Mrs. Gourlay, who had recovered her breath
again—"this! Look at him there, the muckle slabber," and she pointed to
Gilmour, who was standing with a red-lowering, downcast face, "look at
him! A man of that size to even himsell to a wean!"
    "He deserved a' he got," said Gilmour sullenly. "His mother spoils him,
at ony rate. And I'm damned if the best Gourlay that ever dirtied
leather's gaun to trample owre
me
."
    Gourlay jumped round with a quick start of the whole body. For a full
minute he held Gilmour in the middle of his steady glower.
    "Walk," he said, pointing to the gate.
    "Oh, I'll walk," bawled Gilmour, screaming now that anger gave him
courage. "Gie me time to get
my
kist, and I'll walk mighty quick. And
damned glad I'll be to get redd o' you and your hoose. The Hoose wi' the
Green Shutters," he laughed, "hi, hi, hi!—the Hoose wi' the Green
Shutters!"
    Gourlay went slowly up to him, opening his eyes on him black and wide.
"You swine!" he said, with quiet vehemence; "for damned little I would
kill ye wi' a glower!"
    Gilmour shrank from the blaze in his eyes.
    "Oh, dinna be fee-ee-ared," said Gourlay quietly, "dinna be fee-ee-ared.
I wouldn't dirty my hand on 'ee! But get your bit kist, and I'll see ye
off the premises. Suspeecious characters are worth the watching."
    "Suspeecious!" stuttered Gilmour, "suspeecious! Wh-wh-whan was I ever
suspeecious? I'll have the law of ye for that. I'll make ye answer for
your wor-rds."
    "Imphm!" said Gourlay. "In the meantime, look slippy wi' that bit box o'
yours. I don't like daft folk about
my
hoose."
    "There'll be dafter folk as me in your hoose yet," spluttered Gilmour
angrily, as he turned away.
    He went up to the garret where he slept and brought down his trunk. As
he passed through the scullery, bowed beneath the clumsy burden on his
left shoulder, John, recovered from his sobbing, mocked at him.
    "Hay-ay-ay," he said, in throaty derision, "my faither's the boy for ye.
Yon was the way to put ye down!"

Chapter V
*
    In every little Scotch community there is a distinct type known as "the
bodie." "What does he do, that man?" you may ask, and the answer will
be, "Really, I could hardly tell ye what he does—he's juist a bodie!"
The "bodie" may be a gentleman of independent means (a hundred a year
from the Funds), fussing about in spats and light check breeches; or he
may be a jobbing gardener; but he is equally a "bodie." The chief
occupation of his idle hours (and his hours are chiefly idle) is the
discussion of his neighbour's affairs. He is generally an "auld
residenter;" great, therefore, at the redding up of pedigrees. He can
tell you exactly, for instance, how it is that young Pin-oe's taking
geyly to the dram; for his grandfather, it seems, was a terrible man for
the drink—ou, just terrible. Why, he went to bed