Page:Comical transactions of Lothian Tom (5).pdf/21

 ( 19 ) ‘Done,' says Tom, 'it will cost you no more.' So away he runs a foot through the fields, until he came before the butcher, hard by the place where he stole the calf from him the day before; and here he lies behind the hedge, and as the butcher came past, he put his hand on his mouth, and cried, Ba, baw, like a calf. The but- cher hearing this, swore to himself that there was the calf he had lost the day be- fore ! Down he comes, and throws the calf on the ground, gets in through the hedge in all haste, thinking he had no more to do but to take it up ; but as he came in at one part of the hedge, Tom jumps out at another, and gets the calf on his back ; he then gets in over the hedge on the other side, and through the fields he came safely home, with the calf on his back, while the poor butcher spent his time and labour in vain, running from hedge to hedge, and hole to hole, seeking what was not there to be found. So the butcher returned to his horse again, and finding his other calf gone, he concluded it to be done by some invisible spirit about that spot of ground ; and so went home and raised a bad report on the devil, say- ing, That he was turned a highwayman, and had taken two calves from him. So Tom washing the white face of the stolen