‘Was the bitin o’ the beasts terrible sair?’ interrupted Steenie.
‘Ay, I reckon it was some sair; but the puir fowk aye said the bonny man was wi’ them; and lat them bite!—they didna care!’
‘Ay, of coorse, gien he was wi’ them, they wadna min’ ’t a hair, or at least, no twa hairs! Wha wud! Gien he be in yon hole, Kirsty, I’ll gang back and intil’t my lee lane. I wull noo!’
Steenie turned and had run some distance before Kirsty succeeded in stopping him. She did not run after him.
‘Steenie! Steenie!’ she cried, ‘I dinna doobt he’s there, for he’s a’gait; but ye ken yersel ye canna aye see him, and maybe ye wudna see him there the noo, and micht think he wasna there, and turn fleyt. Bide till we hae a licht, and I gang doon first.’
Steenie was persuaded, and turned and came back to her. To father, mother, and sister he was always obedient, even on the rare occasions when it cost him much to be so.
‘Ye see, Steenie,’ she continued, ‘yon’s no the place! I dinna ken yet what place yon is. I was only gaein to tell ye aboot the places it min’t me o’! Wud ye like to hear aboot them?’
‘I wad that, richt weel! Say awa, Kirsty.’
‘The fowk, than, ye see, ’at lo’ed the bonny man, gethert themsels aye thegither to hae cracks and newses wi’ ane anither aboot him; and, as I was tellin ye, the fowk ’at didna care aboot him war that angert ’at they set upo’ them, and jist wud hae nane o’ them nor him. Sae to haud oot o’ their grip, they coonselled thegither, and concludit to gether in a place whaur naebody wud think o’ luikin for them—whaur but i’ the booels o’ the earth, whaur they laid their deid awa upo’ skelfs, like in an aumry!’
‘Eh, but that was fearsome!’ interposed Steenie. ‘They maun hae been sair set!—Gien I had been there, wud they hae garred me gang wi’ them?’