nes
rolling off as she scrambled, and as they ran they could hear her
panting: "My God, my God, this is awful!"

Two fields away the boys found Fly sitting on a bank nursing her leg.
"Did ye hear her takin' her Maker's name in vain?" said Patsy, and he
rolled on the grass with laughter.

"I niver seen ould Jane in better fettle," said Mick.

"If we'd had any wit we'd 'a' set Sammy on her too," said Fly.

"We'll do it yit," said Patsy, and there and then they began to run
like hares along the road to the cottage where Sammy lived. Sammy was
an innocent, and lived in a one-roomed cottage on the roadside that was
entirely hidden from sight by the rowan-trees that grew round it. He
was a little old man, who spent his days attending to his sister's pig.
There was not a more peaceable soul in the countryside, but on the
subject of the pig Sammy could be roused to fury. He talked to it,
sang to it, fed it out of his hand. When he walked about the fields
the pig followed at his heels, when he sat on the doorstep it lay at
his feet. But if one of the village children threw a stone at it, or
if any threatened in joke to harm it, Sammy was beside himself with
rage, and it was an insult he never forgot. Twice a week he came to
Rowallan for the refuse and broken meat, and, next to the pig, he loved
the children. He was at home when they knocked at the door, and came
out at once.

"M-m-m-m-mornin'!" he stammered.

They were out of breath, and could hardly speak. Sammy began to look
frightened; it was so easy to scare his few wits away.

"Oh, Sammy, she's comin' after yer pig," Fly panted.

"Wh-wh-wh-where?" Sammy shouted.

"Along the road," said Patsy; "she'll be here in a minute; a long
string of a woman with a black dress on. She's clean mad to get at it;
ye'd better be out, an' chase her."

"L-l-l-l-let me at her!" roared Sammy, picking up his bucket.

"She's comin' to kill it, Sammy," said Mick; "she come all the way from
England to do it."

Sammy was dancing on the doorstep. "Hide down behind the wall till she
comes," said Patsy, and they pulled Sammy down with them.

"Whist, Sammy; be quiet, man, till she comes," said Mick--for Sammy was
snorting and quivering. "I'll give ye the word when I see her."

[Illustration: "Whist, Sammy, be quiet, man, till she comes," said Mick]

In about five minutes Aunt Charlotte came in sight. They saw her
through the holes in the wall, limping slowly, and looking ba