Page:History and comical transactions of Lothian Tom (4).pdf/3

 COMICAL TRANSACTIONS, &c. 3

It happened one day that Tom went a fiſhing, and brought home a few ſmall fiſh, which his grandmother's cat ſnapt up in the dark: ſo Tom, to have juſtice of the cat for ſo doing, catches her, and puts her into a little tub, or cog, then ſets her a-drift into a mill-dam, order- ing her to go a-fiſhing for herſelf ; then ſets out two or three dogs upon her, where a moſt terrible ſea-fight en- ſued, as ever was ſeen on freſh water; for if any of the dogs aſſayed to board her, by ſetting in over their noſe, badrans came flying to that quarter, to repulſe him with her claws: then the veſſel was like to be overſet by the weight of herſelf, ſo ſhe had to flee to the other, and finding the ſame there, from thence to the middle, where ſhe fat mewing, always turning herſelf about, combing their noſes with her foot. The old woman being in formed of the dangerous ſituation of her dearly beloved cat, carne running with a long pole to beat off the dogs, and hand 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 the tumbled into the dam over head and ears, be fide her beloved cat, and would undoubtedly have pe- riſhed in the water, had not one of the people who wa- there, looking at the diverſion, come to her relief. After this Tom was ſent to the ſchool to keep hi hand out of an ill turn: and, having an old canker'd crab-witted fellow for his dominie, they were always a variance, for if Tom had got his whips, which he ofter deſerved, he was ſure to be revenged upon his maſter a gain for it. So Tom perceiving his maſter had a cloſe ſtool in a little cloſet within the ſchool, where he wen and eaſed himſelf when need was: Tom gets a penny worth of gun-powder, and ſtrinkled it on the ground directly before the feat, and lays a little of it along in train to the fire-fide, then perceiving when his maſte went into it, and as he was looſing down his breeche ſets fire to the train, which blew it all up about his ma ter's bare hips, and ſcorched him terribly, beſid the fright, for which Tom was ſeverely whipt; yet a little after he began to ſtudy revenge on his maſter. So it happened one day as Tom went into the ma- A 2 ter