Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/225

 house under cover of the fog to capture and bring him on board. These instructions were carried out with all possible caution, and the press-gang reached Billy's house at an hour when he and his family were supposed to be asleep. Billy, however, was on the alert, and as his would-be captors entered the butt door, he sprang out the ben chimney, gaining the yard behind the house at a single bound. But just as he crossed the stiggie (stile), he was seized by one of the press-gang who had been left outside on watch. Turning on the man, he seized him with an overmastering grip and quickly tied his hands behind his back with a lamb's tether he happened to have in his pocket. The poor, crestfallen official pleaded to be tied more gently, but Billy's only reply was: “Ha, bridder! he that shör bin's, shör fin's, an 'lauchs whin he lowses.”

The following proverbs show that a name either for good or evil has a tendency to stick to one: