J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular rhymes of Scotland

224 POPULAR RHYMES OF SCOTLAND.
" Ah ha ! " thinks the wife, " I've gotten the mason's word
at last; the deil gi'e them joy that telt it !" Sae she gaed
hame far lichter than she came out, as ye may weel guess,
lauchin' like a madcap wi' the thought o' begunkin' the
auld green fairy.
^ A weel, ye maun ken that this good wife was a jokus
woman, and aye merry when her heart wasna unco sair
owreladen. Sae she thinks to ha'e some sport wi' the fairy ;
and at the appointit time she puts the bairn behint the
knockin'-stane, and sits down on't hersel'. Syne she poos
her mutch ajee owre her left lug, crooks her mou on the
tither side, as gin she war greetin', and a filthy face she
made, ye may be sure. She hadna lang to wait, for up the
brae mounts the green fairy, nowther lame nor lazy ; and
lang or she gat near the knockin'-stane, she skirls out,
" Goodwife o' Kittlerumpit, ye weel ken what I come for —
stand and deliver ! " The wife pretends to greet sairer than
before, and wrings her nieves, and fa's on her knees, wi',
" Och, sweet madam mistress, spare my only bairn, and
take the weary soo ! "
" The deil take the soo for my share," quo' the fairy ; " I
come na here for swine's flesh. Dinna be contramawcious,
hizzie, but gi'e me the gett instantly ! "
" Ochon, dear leddy mine," quo' the greetin' goodwife ;
" forbear my poor bairn, and take mysel' ! "
" The deil's in the daft jad," quo' the fairy, looking like
the far-end o' a fiddle ; " I'll wad she's clean dementit. Wha
in a' the earthly warld, wi' half an e'e in their head, wad
ever meddle wi' the likes o' thee?"
' I trow this set up the wife o' Kittlerumpit's birss ; for
though she had twa bleert een, and a lang red neb forbye,
she thought hersel' as bonny as the best o' them. Sae she
bangs aff her knees, sets up her mutch-croon, and wi' her
twa hands faulded afore her, she maks a curchie down to
the grund, and, " In troth, fair madam," quo' she, " I might
hae had the wit to ken that the likes o' me is na fit to tye
the warst shoe-strings o' the heich and mighty princess,
WMqjpity Stoorie .'" Gin a fluff o' gunpowder had come out
o' the grund, it couldna hae gart the fairy loup heicher nor
she did ; syne down she came again, dump on her shoe-heels,
whirls of dust, occasioned by the wind on roads and in streets ? Another
version of the story calls the green woman Fittletetot.