Chapter 19 - Page 2

to the
superiority of that boy's attainments. Tommy told him a number of
interesting things to say to Mr. Ogilvy and the lady about his fits,
about how queer he felt just before they came on, and the visions he had
while he was lying stiff. But though the admiring Corp gave attentive
ear, he said hopelessly next day, "Not a dagont thing do I mind. When
they question me about my fits I'll just say I'm sometimes in them and
sometimes out o' them, and if they badger me more, I can aye kick."

Tommy gave him a look that meant, "Fits are just wasted on you," and
Corp replied with another that meant, "I ken they are." Then they
parted, one of them to reflect.

"Corp," he said excitedly, when next they met, "has Mr. Ogilvy or the
lady ever come to see you afore?"

They had not, and Corp was able to swear that they did not even know him
by sight.

"They dinna ken me either," said Tommy.

"What does that matter?" asked Corp, but Tommy was too full to speak. He
had "found a way."

The lady and Mr. Ogilvy found Corp such a success that the one gave him
a shilling and the other took down his reminiscences in a note-book. But
if you would hear of the rings of blue and white and yellow Corp saw,
and of the other extraordinary experiences he described himself as
having when in a fit, you need not search that note-book, for the page
has been torn out. Instead of making inquiries of Mr. Ogilvy, try any
other dominie in the district, Mr. Cathro, for instance, who delighted
to tell the tale. This of course was when it leaked out that Tommy had
personated Corp, by arrangement with the real Corp, who was listening in
rapture beneath the bed.

Tommy, who played his part so well that he came out of it in a daze, had
Corp at heel from that hour. He told him what a rogue he had been in
London, and Corp cried admiringly, "Oh, you deevil! oh, you queer little
deevil!" and sometimes it was Elspeth who was narrator, and then Tommy's
noble acts were the subject; but still Corp's comment was "Oh, the
deevil! oh, the queer little deevil!" Elspeth was flattered by his
hero-worship, but his language shocked her, and after consulting Miss
Ailie she advised him to count twenty when he felt an oath coming, at
the end of which exercise the desire to swear would have passed away.
Good-natured Corp willingly promised to try this, but he was never
hopeful, and as he explained to Tommy, after a failure, "It just made me
waur than ever, for when I had counted the twenty I said a big Damn,
thoughtful-like, and syne out jumpit three little damns, like as if the
first ane had cleckit in my mouth."

It was