6 "STOLEN BY THE GIPSIES." CHAP. i. 



cry that he had been " stolen by the gipsies ! " It 

 was remembered that some tinkers had been selling 

 their brooms and pans in the village that afternoon ; 

 and it was immediately concluded that they had 

 kidnapped the child. It was not so very unreason- 

 able after all. Adam Smith, the author of the Wealth 

 of Nations, had been kidnapped by a gipsy woman 

 when a child at Kirkcaldy, many years before ; and 

 such things live long in popular recollection. 



A hue-and-cry was accordingly got up in Kettle 

 about the bairn that had been stolen by the gipsies. 

 Their camp was known to be in the neighbourhood, 

 about three miles off. . Tom's uncle and three other 

 men volunteered to go early next morning. The neigh- 

 bours went to their homes, except two, who remained 

 with the mother. She sat by the fire all night, a 

 long, wretched, dreary night. Early in the morning 

 the four men started. They found the gipsy camp, 

 and stated their grievance. They " wanted the child 

 that had been kidnapped yesterday." " What ?" said 

 the chief gipsy ; " we never kidnap children ; such 

 a dishonest deed has never been laid to our charge. 

 But, now that you are here, you had better look for 

 yourselves." 



As the searchers were passing through among the 

 carts and tents, they were set upon by a number of 

 women and girls, and belaboured with every kind of 

 weapon and missile. Those who had neither sticks 

 nor ropes, used their claws. The men were unmerci- 





