It took a mouse

Quite surprising what starts a line of thought , triggers memories, etc.

So, when I was lying awake at 2.30 a.m. I could hear the patter of tiny feet up in the loft, our mouse is back , or a mouse is back, seeking some heat as it is -6 C outside at the moment. So I thought back to when as a small boy , probably about 4 yrs old and living at cockburn farm, about a mile from balerno Village where my father worked as ahead dairyman.
The farm was owned by Alix Buchanan-Smith, who later became Lord Balerno, and was a very respected member of the agricultural fraternity, having studied in the USA, etc. His brother in law was Richard Austen Butler, (RAB Butler) well known Conservative MP and intrumental in developing education.
However, I digress, in the summer when the harvest was on, they used to bring in the big traction engine, to drive the threshing machines, and as the crops were cut by the horse drawn cutters the barly was but through the thresher to collect the grain . Obvioulsy the fields were full of filed mice who nested in the corn / barley, and as the cutting took place hey were stunned or killed. So , young master Blaikie (me) used to go and collect all these dead mice and take them back into the farm. On this particular day I was in the dairy, where you could drink the fresh milk as it came off the coolers and then into the milk churns, or through to the tanks before bottling - all done by hand. There I was in the so called sterile dairy, with rows upon rows of little dead mice all laid out on the floor when RAB Butler came in looking for Sir Alix !!! I think he took it all in good humour, however, just think what would have happened if it had been these days.

Being a sort of active and wild wean, I was forever falling foul of Sir Alix, often being marched off the farm , over the bridge and given back to mother with the instructions that I was forbidden to return. I am sure my parents were delighted - not. I even fell into the sewrage sludge pond one day, and had to be rescued to save me from drowning, was hosed down and taken home where it took sever days of baths to eventually get the taste and smell away. Bet they were pleased when we left Cockburn Farm and moved to East Kinleith Farm at Currie - but that is another story.
Happy days - now , that poor wee mouse up in the loft will be hunted remorselessly for keeping us awake.