Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/429

 Miscellanea. 393

Four Yorkshire Folktales. 1. — The Old Alan at the White House}

There was once a man who lived in a white house in a certain village, and he knew everything about everybody that lived in the place.

In the same village there lived a woman who had a daughter called Sally, and one day she gave Sally a pair of yellow kid gloves and threatened to kill her if she lost them.

Now Sally was very proud of her gloves, but she was careless enough to lose one of them. After she had lost it she went to a row of houses in the village and inquired at every door if they had seen her glove. But everybody said " No ; " and she was told to go and ask the old man that lived in the white house.

So Sally went to the white house and asked the old man if he had seen her glove. The old man said : " I have thy glove, and I will give it thee if thou wilt promise me to tell nobody where thou hast found it. And remember if thou tells anybody I shall fetch thee out of bed when the clock strikes twelve at night." So he gave the glove back to Sally.

But Sally's mother got to know about her losing the glove, and said : " Where did thou find it ? "

Sally said : " I daren't tell, for if I do an old man will fetch me out of bed at twelve o'clock at night."

Her mother said : " I will bar all the doors and fasten all the windows, and then he can't get in and fetch thee ; " and then she made Sally tell her where she had found her glove.

So Sally's mother barred all the doors and fastened all the windows, and Sally went to bed at ten o'clock that night and began to cry. At eleven she began to cry louder, and at twelve o'clock she heard a voice saying in a whisper, but gradually getting louder and louder :

" Sally, I'm up one step." "Sally, I'm up two steps." " Sally, I'm up three steps." " Sally, I'm up four steps."

' From Wakefield. Told to me by C. R. Hirst, of Sheffield, aged i8. It is hoped that this tale will not be reprinted in any book intended for children.