He pointed to another—they raised it also———to a third, to a fourth—they continued to humour him, though with some trouble, for he assigned them, as if intentionally, the heaviest fragments which lay near. "And now, friend," said Elliot, as the unreasonable Dwarf indicated another stone larger than any they had moved, "Earnscliff may do as he likes; but be ye man, or be ye waur, de'il be in my fingers if I break my back wi' heaving these stanes ony langer like a barrow-man, without getting sae muckle as thanks for my pains."
"Thanks!" exclaimed the Dwarf, with a motion expressive of the utmost contempt—"There—take them, and fatten upon them! Take them, and may they thrive with you as they have done with me as they have done with every mortal worm that ever heard the word spoken by his fellow reptile!—Hence—either labour or begone."
"This is a fine reward we haye, Earns-
