, but he would have to take
the Haughty Princess wi' him, and he would be sweer to do that."

Grizel reflected: "If I had a whip like the one the Slave-driver has
shouldn't I lash the boys who hoot my mamma! I wish I could turn boys
into pumpkins. The Mountain Maid wore a beautiful muslin with gold lace,
but she does not wash her neck."

Lastly, let Corp have his say: "I looked at the outside of the shows,
but always landed back at Californy's stand. Sucking is better nor near
anything. The Teuch and Tasty is stickier than ever. I have lost twa
teeth. The Mountain Maid is biding all night at Tibbie Birse's, and I
went in to see her. She had a bervie and a boiled egg to her tea. She
likes her eggs saft wi' a lick of butter in them. The Fat Wife is the
one I like best. She's biding wi' Shilpit Kaytherine on the Tanage Brae.
She weighs Jeems and Kaytherine and the sma' black swine. She had an
ingin to her tea. The Slave-driver's a fushinless body. One o' the
Victims gives him his licks. They a' bide in the caravan. You can stand
on the wheel and keek in. They had herrings wi' the rans to their tea. I
cut a hole in Jerusalem and Back, and there was no Jerusalem there. The
man as ocht Jerusalem greets because the Fair Circassian winna take him.
He is biding a' night wi' Blinder. He likes a dram in his tea."

Elspeth's money lasted till four o'clock. For Aaron, almost the only man
in Thrums who shunned the revels that day, she bought a gingerbread
house; and the miraculous powder which must be taken on a sixpence was
to make Blinder see again, but unfortunately he forgot about putting it
on the sixpence. And of course there was something for a certain boy.
Grizel had completed her purchases by five o'clock, when Tommy was still
heavy with threepence halfpenny. They included a fluffy pink shawl, she
did not say for whom, but the Painted Lady wore it afterwards, and for
herself another doll.

"But that doll's leg is broken," Tommy pointed out.

"That was why I bought it," she said warmly, "I feel so sorry for it,
the darling," and she carried it carefully so that the poor thing might
suffer as little pain as possible.

Twice they rushed home for hasty meals, and were back so quickly that
Tommy's shadow strained a muscle in turning with him. Night came on,
and from a hundred strings stretched along stands and shows there now
hung thousands of long tin things like trumpets. One burning paper could
set a dozen of these ablaz