Fiction > Book editions > London, 1886 - Kidnapped

168                                    KIDNAPPED.
but your ways are not mine, and they're not God's;
and the short and the long of it is just that we must
twine."
"I will hardly twine from ye, David, without some
kind of reason for the same," said Alan, mighty gravely.
"If ye ken anything against my reputation, it's the
least thing that ye should do, for old acquaintance sake,
to let me hear the name of it; and if ye have only
taken a distaste to my society, it will be proper for me
to judge if I'm insulted."
"Alan," said I, "what is the sense of this? Ye
ken very well yon Campbell-man lies in his blood upon
the road."
He was silent for a little; then says he, "Did ever
ye hear tell of the story of the Man and the Good
People?"-by which he meant the fairies.
"No," said I, "nor do I want to hear it."
"With your permission, Mr. Balfour, I will tell it
you, whatever," says Alan. "The man, ye should ken,
was cast upon a rock in the sea, where it appears the
Good People were in use to come and rest as they went
through to Ireland. The name of this rock is called the
Skerryvore, and it's not far from where we suffered
shipwreck. Well, it seems the man cried so sore, if he
could just see his little bairn before he died! that at
last the king of the Good People took peety upon him,
and sent one flying that brought back the bairn in a
poke* and laid it down beside the man where he lay
* Bag.