Languages & literature > A window in Thrums

THE GHOST CRADLE 99
“Dinna think ’at we juist lay in our beds or sat
round the fire shakkin’ wi’ fear. Everything ’at
could be dune was dune. In the daytime, when
naething was heard, the masons explored a’ place
i’ the farm, in the hope o’ findin’ oot ’at the sound
was caused by sic a thing as the wind playin’ on the
wood in the garret. Even at nichts, when they
couldna sleep wi’ the sound, I’ve kent them rise in
a body an’ gang all ower the house wi’ lichts. I’ve
seen them climbin’ on the new steadin’, crawlin’
alang the rafters haudin’ their cruizey lamps afore
them, an’ us women-bodies shiverin’ wi’ fear at the
door. It was on ane o’ thae nichts ’at a mason fell
off the rafters an’ broke his leg. Weel, sic a state
was the men in to find oot what it was ’at was
terrifying them sae muckle, ’at the rest o’ them
climbed up at aince to the place he’d fallen frae,
thinkin’ there was something there ’at had fleid ’im.
But though they crawled back an’ forrit there was
naething ava.
“The rockin’ was louder, we thocht, after that
nicht, an’ syne the men said it would go on till some¬
body was killed. That idea took a richt baud o’
them, an’ twa ran awa back to Tilliedrum, whaur