Page:History of Buchaven (sic) in Fifeshire (2).pdf/5

 sons, who were fishers on the coast of Norway, who, in a violent storm, were blown over, and got a-shore at Buck-harbour, where they settled; and the whole of his children were called Thomsons, and soon became a little town by themselves, as few of any other name dwelt among them. This is a traditional story handed down from one generation to another.—They kept but little communication with the country people about them, for a farmer, in those days, thought his daughter cast away, if she married one of the other hand; Witty Eppie the ale-wife, wad a sworn Bugo, laddie, I wad rather see my boat and a' my three sons daded against the Bass or I saw ony ane o' them married to a muck-a-byre's daughter; a wheen useless tawpies, it can do naething but rive at a tow-lock and cut corn, they can neither bait a hook nor redd a line, hook sand-eels, nor gather pirriwinkles.

Now, Wise Willie and Witty Eppie the ale-wife, lived there about a hundred years ago. Eppie's chamber was their College and Court-House where they decided controversies, and explained their wonders; for the house was like a