Page:Storys of The bewitched fiddler (1).pdf/21

 blue cloth, which had been cabbaged that very morning from a prime piece winch he had got into his hands for the purpose of making a marriage coat for his neighbour, the blacksmith. 'Was all this stuff got fairly and honestly, good man,' said the Old Gentleman, with a sneer quite worthy of Beelzebub. 'I suppose you will be able to recognise some of these old bits; what think you now of that piece in the middle which your eyes are fixed on—cabbaged no farther back than this morning? Come along, my old boy, come along; you are a true son of your old father, I see, and I will furnish you with as warm winter quarters as you ever enjoyed when you was half stewed with your old maiden-aunt, at the top of fifteen pair of stairs in the High Street of Edinburgh, when serving your apprenticeship with Dick Mouleypouches.' A cold sweet broke over the poor tailor, and he felt as if he could have sunk snugly into the earth, if it had only had the goodness to open at that moment for his especial accommodation, when he saw the long bony arm stretched out, with its sharp eagle claws, to clutch him: he made a sharp bolt back, and giving vent to his feelings in a loud and long howl, which hung horribly in his ears long after opening his eyes, he found himself sprawling in the middle of his wooden floor,