Then the poor Ushag-reaisht wails:
‘T’eh feer feayr, t’eh feer feayr!’
It’s very cold, it’s very cold.
Then the Blackbird goes his ways.
BILLY BEG, TOM BEG, AND THE FAIRIES
Not far from Dalby, Billy Beg and Tom Beg, two humpback cobblers, lived together on a lonely croft. Billy Beg was sharper and cleverer than Tom Beg, who was always at his command. One day Billy Beg gave Tom a staff, and quoth he:
‘Tom Beg, go to the mountain and fetch home the white sheep.’
Tom Beg took the staff and went to the mountain, but he could not find the white sheep. At last, when he was far from home and dusk was coming on, he began to think that he had best go back. The night was fine, and stars and a small crescent moon were in the sky. No sound was to be heard but the curlew’s sharp whistle. Tom was hastening home, and had almost reached Glen Rushen, when a grey mist gathered and he lost his way. But it was not long before the mist cleared, and Tom Beg found himself in a green glen such as he had never seen before, though he thought he knew every glen within five miles of him, for he was born and reared in the neighbourhood. He was marvelling and wondering where he could be, when he heard a far-away sound drawing nearer to him.
‘Aw,’ said he to himself, ‘there’s more than myself afoot on the mountains to-night; I’ll have company.’