t what they considered a reasonable price. The
money was handed over to the farmers. The honesty of this is worth
thinking about, but it seems to have only incensed the farmers the
more; and when they saw that to send their meal to the town was not to
get high prices for it, they laid their heads together and then gave
notice that the people who wanted meal and were able to pay for it must
come to the farms. In Thrums no one who cared to live on porridge and
bannocks had money to satisfy the farmers; but, on the other hand, none
of them grudged going for it, and go they did. They went in numbers
from farm to farm, like bands of hungry rats, and throttled the
opposition they not infrequently encountered. The raging farmers at
last met in council and, noting that they were lusty men and brave,
resolved to march in armed force upon the erring people and burn their
town. Now we come to the Battle of Cabbylatch.

The farmers were not less than eighty strong, and chiefly consisted of
cavalry. Armed with pitchforks and cumbrous scythes where they were
not able to lay their hands on the more orthodox weapons of war, they
presented a determined appearance; the few foot-soldiers who had no
cart-horses at their disposal bearing in their arms bundles of
fire-wood. One memorable morning they set out to avenge their losses;
and by and by a halt was called, when each man bowed his head to
listen. In Thrums, pipe and drum were calling the inhabitants to arms.
Scouts rushed in with the news that the farmers were advancing rapidly
upon the town, and soon the streets were clattering with feet. At that
time Thrums had its piper and drummer (the bellman of a later and more
degenerate age); and on this occasion they marched together through the
narrow wynds, firing the blood of haggard men and summoning them to the
square. According to my informant's father, the gathering of these
angry and startled weavers, when he thrust his blue bonnet on his head
and rushed out to join them, was an impressive and solemn spectacle.
That bloodshed was meant there can be no doubt; for starving men do not
see the ludicrous side of things. The difference between the farmers
and the town had resolved itself into an ugly and sullen hate, and the
wealthier townsmen who would have come between the people and the bread
were fiercely pushed aside. There was no nominal leader, but every man
in the ranks meant to fight for himself and his belongings; and