Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/193

 Rh "You will not go," says she, "till first you get your mother's bannock and blessing."

She made a Beltane bannock ready for him in the morning, and thus with the bannock and his mother's blessing he set out for Inverness. There he got no work to do. From Inverness he proceeded to Nairn, where he got work. He took up his lodgings in the house of an old man who had an only daughter. By-and-by Donald began to court the girl and married her. On the night of the wedding whatever came into Donald's head, he got up, put on his clothes, went away and left her there. On he travelled till he arrived at Keith, where he tried to get work, but failed. Thence he proceeded to Huntly, but could find no work there. At last he was on the verge of starvation, for bread or drink he had not tasted since he had left Nairn. There was no alternative for him but to go and beg. He went into a baker's shop and said, "In the name of God, give me something to eat, for I am dying of hunger."

"Bread or drink you will not get from me, you nasty beast," says the baker. "If I were giving to every one of your class that comes the way, I would not have much left to myself."

"Oh," says poor Donald, "don't allow me to die of hunger; give me food, and I will do anything you ask me."

"What could you do?" says the baker.

"I can work," says Donald.

"But," says the baker, "I don't want a workman just now, and I am sure you cannot bake."

"But could I not learn?" says Donald.

"Undoubtedly you could learn," says the baker, "but it would take you seven years to do so."

"Give me food," says Donald, "and to-morrow morning I'm your man."

He served the baker for seven years, and at the end of the seven years, says the baker to Donald: "I am well pleased with you. You served your time honestly, and