Ossian Collection > Folk tales and fairy lore in Gaelic and English

FOLK TALES AND FAIRY LORE. 145
which the tailor was going. " And what wilt thou do
with the woman's own child?" said he then. "Oh,
I will put him out at the back window to my people,
and they will take him with them to our place,"
answered the other. "And will they send him home
when thou hast had enough of his mother's breast?"
"Oh, no; never!" "That will do," said the tailor,
and he let his prisoner go.
As soon as he got his liberty, he stretched away to
the house, and was within before the tailor arrived.
He had the house to himself, for the goodman and his
wife were in the byre milking the cows, and no one
within but the child in the cradle. He lifted the child
in his arms, and handed it out at the back window to
the other fairies, as he thought; but the tailor was before
them, and took the child quietly in his arms, and then
went away with it to the house of his sister, who lived
a short distance off, and left it in her charge.
When he returned he found the wife before him, and
the changeling in the cradle, ready to burst with crying.
The wife took him up, and gave him a drink, and then
put him back in the cradle again. He was not long
there till he began to scream and cry once more. She
took him up, and gave him another drink. But to all
appearance nothing would please him but to be left
always on the breast. This game went on for a few
days more. But when the patience of the tailor ran
out, he sprang at last from the work-table, took in a
creelful of peats, and put a big fire on the hearth.
When the fire was in the heat of its burning, he sprang
over to the cradle, took with him the changeling, and
before any one in the house could interpose, he threw
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