man and his wife were not long married, and they had a wee kiddie called
Johnnie, but he was always crying and never satisfied. There was a neighbour
near, a tailor, and it came to market day, and johnnie was aye greeting, and
never growing. And the wife wanted to get a day at the market, so the tailor
said he'd stay and watch wee Johnnie. So he was sitting sewing by the fire, and a voice said: "Is ma mother and ma faither awa'?"
He couldn't think it was the baby speaking, so he went and looked out of the window, but there was nothing, and he heard it again. "Is ma mother and ma faither awa'?" And there it was, sitting up, with its wee hands gripping the sides of the cradle.
"There's a bottle of whisky in the press," it says. "Gie's a drink."
Sure enough, there was one, and they had a drink together. Then wee Johnnie wanted a blow on the pipes, but there was not a set in the house, so he told the tailor to go and fetch a round strae from the byre, and he played the loveliest tune on the pipes through the strae. They had a good talk together, and the wee thing said, "Is ma mother and ma faither coming home?" And when they came, there was "Nya, nya, nya", in the cradle.
By this time the tailor knew it was a fairy they had there, so he followed the farmer into the byre, and told him all that had happened. The farmer just couldn't bring himself to believe it; so between them they hit on a contrivance.
They let on that a lot of things had not been sold at the market, and there was to be a second day of it, and the tailor promised to come over again to sit by the bairn. They made a great stir about packing up, and then they went through to the barn, and listened through the keek hole in the wall
"Is ma mother and ma faither gone?" said the wee thing, and the mother could just hardly believe her ears. But when they heard the piping through the cornstrae, they kent it was a fairy right enough, and the farmer went in to the room, and he set the gridle on the fire and heated it red hot, and he fetched in a half bagful of horse manure, and set it on the gridle, and the wee thing looked at him with wild eyes. When he went to to grip it, and put it on the gridle, it flew straight up the lum, and as it went it cried out, "I wish I had a been longer with my mother. I'd a kent her better."
