24 TOM AND HIS GRANNIE. CHAP. n. 



splash in the water. His comrades called out, " Tarn, 

 Tarn, yer grannie's droonin' ! " But Tarn neither 

 stopped nor looked back. He flew as fast as he 

 could to the Inches, where he stopped to take breath. 

 The tide coming in, drove him away, and then he 

 took refuge on the logs, near the Middens ; after 

 which he slunk home in the evening. 



His mother received him thus : " Ye're here again, 

 ye ne'er-do-well ! creepin in like a thief. Ye've been 

 wi' yer raggamuffins : yer weet duds tell that. That's 

 wi' yer Inches, an' tearin an' ridin on the logs, an' 

 yer whin bushes. But ye may think muckle black 

 shame o' yersel, man, for gaun and drooniu yer peer 

 auld grannie." " I didna droon her," said Tom. 

 " But she may hae been drooned for you ; ye didna 

 stay to tak her oot." " She fell in hersell." " Haud 

 yer tongue, or I'll take the poker t'ye. Think shame, 

 man, to send her hame in sic a filthy state. But 

 where's the bread I sent ye for?" "It's a' eaten." 

 " We wad hae had a late breakfast if we had waited 

 till now, and sine ye've no gottin it after a'. But 

 yell see what yer faither 'ill say to ye when he gets 

 hame." 



Tom was in bed by that time. He remained 

 awake until his father returned in the evening. He 

 was told the whole story by his wife, in its most 

 dreadful details. When he heard of grannie's plash 

 into the burn, and coming home covered with " glaur," 

 he burst out into a long and hearty laugh. Tom heard 



