9
supply him no more. He knew his grand-
mother had plenty of money, but she
would give him none; but the old woman
had a good black cow of her own, which
Tom went to the fields one evening and
catches, and takes her to an old waste
house, which stood at a distance from any
other, and there he kept her two or three
days giving her meat and drink at night
when it was dark, and made the old
woman believe somebody had stolen the
cow for their winter's mart, which was
grief enough to the old woman, for the
loss of her cow. However she employs
Tom to go to a fair that was near by,
and buy her another: she gives him three
pounds which Tom accepts of very thank-
fully, and promises to buy her one as like
the other as possibly he could get; then he
takes a piece of chalk, and brays it as
small as meal, and steeps it in a little
water and there with rubs over the cow's
face and back, which made her baith
brucket and rigget. So Tom in the
morning, takes the cow to a public house
within a little of the fair, and left her till
the fair was over, and then drives her
home before him; and as soon as they
came home, the cow began to rout as she
used to do, which made the old woman
to rejoice, thinking it was her own cow
