As for Tom, he was so frightened he scarce knew which way to turn, and the lad went back again to his master.
“There’s something wrong”, he said, “with Tom’s plough, and he begs you to be so good as to take your axe, and go and see if you can’t set it right.”
Yes, the man set off with his axe, but Tom Totherhouse had scarce caught sight of him before he took to his heels as fast as he could. The man turned and twisted the plough round and round, and looked at it on every side, and when he couldn’t see anything wrong with it he went off home again; but on the way he picked up the bits of broken bannock which the lad had let fall. His old dame stood in the meadow and looked at him as he did this for a while, and wondered and wondered what it could be her husband was gathering up.
“Oh, I know”, said the lad, “master’s picking up stones, I’ll be bound; for he has marked how often this Tom Totherhouse runs over here; and the old fellow won’t stand it any longer; and now he has sworn to stone mother to death.”
Off went the Goody as fast as her legs could carry her.
“What in the world is it that mother is running after now?” asked the man, when he reached the spot where she had stood.
“Oh”, said the lad, “maybe the house at home is on fire!”
So there ran the husband behind and the Goody before; and as she ran she screeched out:
“Ah! ah! don’t stone me to death; don’t stone me to death! and I’ll give you my word never to let Tom Totherhouse come near me again.”
“Now the ten dollars are mine”, bawled out the lad; and so they were.