Page:Comical tricks of Lothian Tom (3).pdf/4



4          overset by the weight of her self, so she had to flee to the other, and finding the same there, from thence to the middle, where she sat mewing, always turning herself about, combing their noses with her foot. The old woman being informed of the dangerous situation of her dearly beloved cat, came running with a long pole to beat off the dogs and haul her ashore. What now, says Tom, if you be          going to take part with my enemies, you shall have part of their reward; then gives the old woman such a push that she tumb- led into the dam over head and ears, beside her beloved cat, and would un- doubtedly have perished in the water had not one of the people who was there look- ing at the diversion, came to her relief. After his Tom was sent to school, to          keep his hand out of an ill turn; and having an old cankered, crab-witted fellow for his dominie, they were always at vari- ance; for if Tom had got his whips, which he often deserved, he was sure to be re- venged upon his master again for it. So          Tom perceiving his master had a close- stool in a little closet within the school, where he went and eased himself when, need was, Tom gets a penny-worth of          gun-powder, and sprinkled it on the ground directly before the seat, and lays