Perfervid Author:John Davidson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II THE ' DUNMYATT WHISKY ' LUNCH was served in a hall containing a long table, at the head of which was a dais. Here Jamieson and Mortimer sat, while... more » the servants, having set the dishes, took their places beneath the salt. Before each was a good-sized wooden bowl or cog, containing porridge, a smaller cog with milk, and a horn spoon of very unfashionable dimensions. As soon as Jamieson had taken a first spoonful all the servants began to sup without ceremony. Mortimer, who had no particular relish for porridge, devoured cogs and spoons, master and servants, with his eyes. ' Fa' tae, man,' said Jamieson. ' What ? ' cried Mortimer. He knew the Scotch dialect well enough, but was so unprepared for it that, although he heard the words distinctly, he had no sense of their meaning. ' Don't you like porridge ?' asked Jamieson. Mortimer determined that a warier conduct than his had been for the last hour or two might be advisable. The hall in which they were had quite the appearance of an armoury, with targets and claymores, blunderbusses and pistols, on all the walls. He was beginning also to doubt the sanity of his entertainer. So, while he would have preferred to propound a theory regarding porridge which occurred to him at the moment, he said, in answer to the Provost's question, ' I like it very much indeed, but I am so astonished at all I see that I'm afraid I've lost my appetite.' ' Try it,' said the Provost. ' We're noted for our porridge here.' Mortimer took one spoonful, and then another. ' It's the best porridge I ever tasted,' he said with genuine satisfaction. ' It's very different,' he added tautologically, ' from any porridge I've been accustomed to.' ' You mean the thick, raw, half-boiled stuff which is thought to be the true Scotch dish...« less