TOM PUBDIE GETS A FLEG. 221 



the big redd was, and blew up about thirty step below, 

 sae that the light might be at the best when we came 

 foment it. Sandy held the light weel : his een were 

 glenting in his head wi' eagerness; and just when we 

 cam' to the tail o' the redd, I saw the muckle kipper 

 lyin' like a flain wedder. I had, as I thought, the ad- 

 vantage on my side, for the brae was three or four 

 feet aboun the water, and I strack him wi' a' my pith. 

 Whether the mid grain had stracken him on the back 

 tin, I took nae time then to consider; but the fourteen 

 pund waster stottit off his back as if he had been a 

 a bag o' wool. 



" A cauld sweet cam' owre me, an' I believe every hair 

 on my body crap. I was dead sure it was the deil 

 himseV that had been permitted to throw himsel' in 

 my way for breaking the Sabbath ! For I had begun 

 to tie up the lights as soon as I shook up the callant ; 

 an' it was hardly twal o'clock. I pu'd the burnin' 

 licht out o' his hand, and dash'd it in the Queed, threw 

 him on my back as fast as I could, an' was hardly able 

 to stilt the water again for vera dread. 



" I needna say we were soon in our beds; and I took 

 the callant in aside me, for he was to the full as feard, 

 poor fellow, as I was, — an' mair. For when I got 

 time, an' turn'd calm enough to consider, I began to 

 see it couldna weel be aulcl clootie, for I could mind o' 

 seein' the vera een, an' gib an' teeth and the gapin' 

 mouth o' the kipper. And by and by, I cam' to be 

 certain sure it was neither mair nor less than the big 

 monster I had seen i' daylight. Sae wi' that settle- 

 ment there cam' the question : how could I get another 



