"Of course," he said, when we had got a grip of the subject, "I dount pretend as my ideas is to be followed withoot deeviation, but ondootedly something should be done for geniuses, them bein' aboot the only class as we do naething for. Yet they're fowk to be prood o', an' we shouldna let them overdo¹ the thing, nor run into debt; na, na. There was Robbie Burns, noo, as real a genius as ever—"

 

At the pig-sty, where we liked to have more than one topic, we had frequently to tempt² Tammas away from Burns.

 

"Your scheme," I interposed, "is for living geniuses, of course?"

 

"Ay," he said, thoughtfully, "them 'at's gone canna be brocht back. Weel, my idea is 'at a Home should be built for geniuses at the public expense, whaur they could all live thegither, an be decently looked after. Na, no in London; that's no my plan, but I would hae't within an hour's distance o' London, say five mile frae the market-place, an' standin' in a bit garden, whaur the geniuses could walk aboot arm-in-arm, composin' their minds."

 

"You would have the grounds walled in, I suppose, so that the public could not intrude³?"

 

"Weel, there's a difficulty there, because, ye'll observe, as the public would support the institootion, they would hae a kind o' richt to look in. How-some-ever, I daur say we could arrange to fling the grounds open to the public once a week on condition 'at they didna speak to the geniuses. I'm thinkin' 'at if there was a small chairge for admission the Home could be made self-supportin'. Losh! to think 'at if there had been sic an institootion in his time a man micht hae sat on the bit dyke⁴ and watched Robbie Burns danderin' roond the—"

 

"You would divide the Home into suites⁵ of rooms, so that every

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