J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular rhymes of Scotland

FIRESIDE NURSERY STORIES. 223
" Fitter patter,
Haly water."
' Syne she took cot o' her pooch a wee bottle, wi' some-
thing- like oil in't, and rubs the soo wi't abune the snoot,
ahint the lugs, and on the tip o' the tail. " Get up, beast,"
quo' the green woman. Nae sooner said nor done — up
bangs the soo wi' a grunt, and awa' to her trough for her
breakfast.
' The good wife o' Kittlerumpit was a joyfu' goodwife
noo, and wad hae kissed the very hem o' the green ma-
dam's gown-tail, but she wadna let her. " I'm no sae fond
o' fashions," quo' she ; " but noo that I hae richtit your sick
beast, let us end our sicker bargain. Ye'll no find me an
unreasonable greedy body — I like aye to do a good turn
for a sma' reward — a' I ask, and wull hae, is that lad bairn
in your bosom."
' The goodwife o' Kittlerumpit, wha noo kent her cus-
tomer, ga'e a skirl like a stickit gryse. The green wo-
man was a fairy, nae doubt ; sae she prays, and greets, and
begs, and flytes ; but a' wadna do. " Ye may spare your
din," quo' the fairy, " skirling as if I was as deaf as a door
nail ; but this I'll let ye to wut — I canna, by the laio we
leeve on, take your bairn till the third day after this day ;
and no then, if ye can tell me my right name." Sae ma-
dam gaes awa' round the swine's-sty end, and the goodwife
fa's doon in a swerf behint the knockin'-stane.
' Aweel, the goodwife o' Kittlerumpit could sleep nane
that nicht for greetin', and a' the next day the same, cuddlin'
her bairn till she near squeezed its breath out ; but the
second day she thinks o' taking a walk in the wood I tell't
ye o' ; and sae, wi' the bairn in her arms, she sets
out, and gaes far in amang the trees, where was an auld^
quarry hole, grown owre wi' gerss, and a bonny spring well
in the middle o't. Before she came very nigh, she hears
the birring o' a lint-wheel, and a voice lilting a sang ; sae
the wife creeps quietly amang the bushes, and keeks owre
the broo o' the quarry, and what does she see but the green
fairy kemping at her wheel, and singing like ony pre-
centor —
" Little kens our guid dame at hame,
That Whuppity tStoorie is my name." *
* Can this name originate from the notion, that fairies were always in the