Page:History and comical transactions of Lothian Tom (4).pdf/6

 ware amongſt the brewers and brandy ſhops, until he cowped himſelf to the toom halter ; and then his parents would ſupply him no more. He knew well his grand- mother had plenty of money, but ſhe would give him none, but the old woman had a good black cow of her own, which Tom went to the Gelds one evening, and catches, and takes her into an old waſte houſe which ſtood at a diſtance from any other, and there he kept her two or three days, giving her meat and drink when it was dark at night, and made the old woman believe ſomebody had ſtole the cow for their winter's mart, which was grief enough to the old woman, for the loſs of her dearly beloved cow. However, ſhe employs Tom to go to a fair that was near by, and buy her a- nother, gives him three pounds, which Tom accepts of very thankfully, and promiſes to buy one as like the o- ther as poſſibly he could get; then he gets a piece of chalk, and brays, it as ſmall as meal, and ſteeps it in a little water, and therewith rubs over the cow's face and back, which made her baith brucket and rigget: So Tom in the morning takes the cow to a public houſe within a little of the fair, and left her till the fair was over, and then drives her home before him; and as ſoon as they came home, the cow began to rout as ſhe uſed to do, which made the old woman to rejoice, thinking it was her own black cow, but, when ſhe ſaw her white face, ſighed and ſaid, Alas! thou'll ne'er be like the kindly brute, my Black-lady, and yet routs as like her as ony ever I did hear: but ſays Tom to himſelf, it's a mercy you know not what ſhe ſays, or all would be wrong yet. So in two or three days the old woman put forth her bra rigget cow in the morning with the reſt of her neighbours' cattle, but it came on a fore day of hea- vy rain, which waſhed away all the white from her face and back; ſo the old woman's Black-lady came home at hight, and her rigget cow went away with the flower and was never heard cf. But Tom's father having ſome ſuſpicion, and looking narrowly into the cow's face, found fome of the chalk not waſhed away, and then he gave poor Tom a hearty beating, and ſent him away to ſeek his fortune with a ſkin full of fore bones.

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