THE FOLK-LORE OF SUTHERLANDSHIRE.
By Miss Dempster.
CHAPTER II.
FAIRY STORIES.
i.—The Fairy Changeling.
ONCE upon a time there was a tailor and his wife who owned a small croft, or farm, and were well-to-do in the world, but they had only one son, a child that was more pain than pleasure to them, for it cried incessantly, and was so cross that nothing could be done with it. One day the tailor and his helpmeet meant to go to a place some miles distant, and after giving the child its breakfast they put it to bed in the kitchen, and bid their farm-servant look to it from time to time, desiring him also to thrash out a small quantity of straw in the barn before their return. The lad was late setting to work, but recollected before going off to the barn that he must see if the child wanted for anything. "What are you going to do now?" said the bairn sharply to Donald as he opened the kitchen door. "Thrash out a pickle of straw for your father; lie still, and do not girn, like a gude bairn." But the bairn got out of bed, and insisted there and then on being allowed to accompany the servant. "Go east, Donald," said the little master authoritatively, "go east, and when you come to the big brae, chap ye (Anglicé, rap) three times, and when they come, say ye are
