It is very certain that simple Mistress Jean Brown had never heard of Mr. Dick’s advice to Miss Betsy Trotwood on the occasion when young David Copperfield presented himself, travel-stained and weary, before his good aunt.  But out of her experience of wholesome living she brought forth the same wise opinion.

“I’d gie him a gude washin’ first of a’, Jamie.  He leuks like some puir, gaen-aboot dog.”  And she drew her short, blue-stuff gown back from Bobby’s grateful attentions.

Mr. Brown slapped his corduroy-breeked knee and nodded his grizzled head.  “Richt ye are.  It’s maist michty, noo, I wadna think o’ that.  When I was leevin’ as an under gairdener wi’ a laird i’ Argyleshire I was aye aboot the kennels wi’ the gillies.  That was lang syne.  The sma’ terrier dogs were aye washed i’ claes tubs wi’ warm water an’ soap.  Come awa’, Bobby.”

The caretaker got up stiffly, for such snell weather was apt to give him twinges in his joints.  In him a youthful enthusiasm for dogs had suddenly revived.  Besides, although he would have denied it, he was relieved at having the main issue, as to what was to be done with this four-footed trespasser, side-tracked for a time.  Bobby followed him to the lodge at an eager trot, and he dutifully hopped into the bath that was set on the rear doorstep.  Mr. Brown scrubbed him vigorously, and Bobby splashed and swam and churned the soapy water to foam.  He scrambled out at once, when told to do so, and submitted to being dried with a big, tow-linen towel.  This was all a delightful novelty to Bobby.  Heretofore he had gone into any convenient tam or burn to swim, and then dried himself by rolling on the heather and running before the wind.  Now he was bundled up ignominiously in an old flannel petticoat, carried across a sanded kitchen floor and laid on a warm hearth.

“Doon wi’ ye!” was the gruff order.  Bobby turned around and around on the hearth, like some little wild dog making a bed in the jungle, before he obeyed.  He kept very still during the reading of a chapter and the singing of a Psalm, as he had been taught to do at the farm by many a reminder from Auld Jock’s boot.  And he kept away from the breakfast-table, although the walls of his stomach were collapsed as flat as the sides of an empty pocket.

It was such a clean, shining little kitchen, with the scoured deal table, chairs and cupboard, and the firelight from the grate winked so on pewter mugs, copper kettle, willow-patterned plates and diamond panes, that Bobby blinked too.  Flowers bloomed in pots on the casement sills, and a little brown skylark sang, fluttering as if it would soar, in a gilded cage.  After the morning meal Mr. Brown lighted his pipe and put on his bonnet to go out again, when he bethought him that Bobby might be needing something to eat.

“What’ll ye gie ’im, Jeanie?  At the laird’s, noo, the terriers were aye fed wi’ bits o’ livers an’ cheese an’ moor fowls’ eggs, an’ sic-like, fried.”