Page:Comical transactions of Lothian Tom (5).pdf/12

 ( 10 ) and left her till the fair was over, and then-drives her home before him : and, as soon as they came home, the cow be- gan to rout as she used to do, which made the old woman to rejoice, thinking it was her own black cow, but, when she saw her white face, signed and said, Alas!' thou’ll ne’er be like the kindly brute, my Black-lady, end yet routs as like her as any ever I did hear : But says Tom to him- self, ’Tis a mercy you know not what she says, or all would be wrong yet. So in two or three days the old woman put for her braw rigget cow in the morning with the rest of her neighbour’s cattle, but it came on a sore day of heavy rain, which washed away all the white from her face and back, so that the old woman’s Black- lady came home at night, and her rigget cow went away with the shower, and was never heard of. But Tom’s father hav- ing some suspicion, and looking narrowly into the cow’s face, found some of the chalk not washed away, and then lie gave poor Tom a hearty beating, and sent him away to seek his fortune with a skin full of sore bones.