Page:Comical tricks of Lothian Tom (6).pdf/12

 receive your wages. O! very well goodman, there's mine, take mine said every one faster than another. Some gave him five, six, seven, and eight shillings, even all that they had earn'd thro' the harvest, which amounted to near seven pounds sterling. So Tom having got all their money, he goes on with them till about three miles out of town, and coming to a field of standing corn tho' somewhat green, yet convenient for his purpose, as it lay at some distance from any house; so he made them begin work there, telling them he was going to order dinner for them, and send his own servants to join them. Then he sets off with all the speed he could, but takes another road into the town lest they should follow and catch him. Now when the people to whom the corn belonged saw such a band in their field, they could not understand the meaning of it; so the farmer whose corn it was, went off crying always as he ran to them, to stop; but they would not, until he began to strike at them and they at him, he being in a great passion, as the corn was not fully ripe; at last, by force of argument, and other people coming up to them the poor shearers were convinced they had got the bite, which caused them to go away sore lamenting their misfortune.

Two or three days thereafter, as Tom was going down Canongate in Edinburgh,