Well, when the girl heard this, she felt as if she could have jumped out
of her skin for joy, but she didn't say a word.
Next day that there little thing looked so maliceful when he came for
the flax. And when night came, she heard that knocking against the
window panes. She oped the window, and that come right in on the ledge.
That was grinning from ear to ear, and Oo! that's tail was twirling
round so fast.
“What's my name?” that says, as that gave her the skeins.
“Is that Solomon?” she says, pretending to be afeard.
“Noo, t'ain't,” that says, and that came further into the room.
“Well, is that Zebedee?” says she again.
“Noo, t'ain't,” says the impet. And then that laughed and twirled that's
tail till you couldn't hardly see it.
“Take time, woman,” that says; “next guess, and you're mine.” And that
stretched out that's black hands at her.
Well, she backed a step or two, and she looked at it, and then she
laughed out, and says she, pointing her finger at it:
“NIMMY NIMMY NOT, YOUR NAME'S TOM TIT TOT!”
Well, when that heard her, that gave an awful shriek and away that flew
into the dark, and she never saw it any more.
THE THREE SILLIES
Once upon a time there was a farmer and his wife who had one daughter,
and she was courted by a gentleman. Every evening he used to come and
see her, and stop to supper at the farmhouse, and the daughter used to
be sent down into the cellar to draw the beer for supper. So one evening
she had gone down to draw the beer, and she happened to look up at the
ceiling while she was drawing, and she saw a mallet stuck in one of the
beams. It must have been there a long, long time, but somehow or other
she had never noticed it before, and she began a-thinking. And she
thought it was very dangerous to have that mallet there, for she said
to herself: “Suppose him and me was to be married, and we was to have a
son, and he was to grow up to be a man, and come down into the cellar to
draw the beer, like as I'm doing now, and the mallet was to fall on his
head and kill him, what a dreadful thing it would be!” And she put down
the candle and the jug, and sat herself down and began a-crying.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account