Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/226

204 off his brow. "He had both breeches and drawers, he was well covered, that he was." By which he meant the pig was well fed and fat. Then he went on, "Have you any meat in the house, old lass?"

"No," she said; "meat! where should I get meat?"

"Make up the fire then," said the man; "and sharpen your knife, and cut off a wee bit, and fry it with salt, and let's have a pork chop."

She did as he bade, and tore open the mouth of the sack, and was just going to cut off a steak.

"What's all this?" she cried. "He has got his trotters on," when she saw his shoes; "and he's as black as a coal."

"Don't you know," said her husband, "all cats are grey in the dark, and all pigs black?"

"I dare say," she said; "but black or white is always bright, and a fog is not like a bilberry. This pig has got breeches on."

"Plague take him!" said the man. "I know well enough he is covered with fat all down his legs. Haven't I carried him till the sweat ran down my face?"

"Nay, nay!" said the goody. "He has silver buckles in his shoes, and silver buttons at his knees. My! if it isn't our parish clerk!" she screamed out.

"I tell you it was a fat pig I took," said the man, as he jumped up to see how things stood. "Well! well! Seeing is believing." It was our clerk, both with shoes and buckles; but, for all, he stuck to it it was the fattest pig he had put into the sack.

"But what's done can't be undone," he said; "the best servant is one's own self; but, for all that, help is