No sheep could they find, and Mac and his wife pretended to be so angry at being disturbed, that at last the shepherds were leaving the cottage in despair, when an idea occurred to one of them.
He suddenly exclaimed that he would like to give something to the little baby.
“Mac, by your leave, let me give your bairn but sixpence,” he said.
“Nay, go ’way, he sleeps,” returned Mac. “When he wakens he weeps,” he added. “I pray you go hence.”
“Give me leave him to kiss, and lift up the clout,” begged one of the other men. And before Mac’s wife could prevent him he had pulled down the blanket.
“He has a long snout!” exclaimed the shepherd, who had only caught one glimpse of the strange “baby” in the cradle.
But Mac’s wife was most indignant, and at once declared that it was a beautiful baby:
“A pretty child is he
As sits upon a woman’s knee;
A dylly-downe, perdie,