Jack and the Devil's Purse Read Online Free PDF

the road past?’
    ‘I wish to God you would, and try and talk some sense into him,’ she says.
    ‘I’ll drop in and hae a wee crack to old John on the road past when I’m goin to the church.’
    ‘All right,’ says Maggie.
    So the henwife gave the old Traveller woman eggs and butter and a can o’ milk and everything she needed. She bade her farewell and away went Maggie home to the camp.
    When she came home the old man’s sitting cross-legged with the coat beside him. He wouldn’t hardly speak to her. No fire, his face no washed or nothing. And his two eyes were rolling in his head. The old woman kindled the fire and made him some tea. She offered . . .
    ‘No,’ he said, ‘I’m no wantin nothing fae ye. Don’t want nothing fae ye, not nothing at all!’
    ‘God bless me, John,’ she said, ‘that’s no a way to carry on. What’s wrong wi ye?’
    ‘There’s nothing wrong wi me. What’s wrong with
you
?’
    ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘there nothing wrong with
me
.’
    But anyway, that night again the old woman wouldn’t let him put the coat over the bed. And they argued all night about it. The old man gave in at last. He flung it at the foot o’ the bed.
    But next morning the old woman got up again, made a cup o’ tea. The old man took a cup o’ tea, nothing else, hardly speaking, just snapping at every word she spoke to him.
    ‘Well, John,’ she said, ‘there’s something far wrong with you, since ever you found that coat. As low as my father, that is
the Devil’s coat
!’
    ‘I’m no carin,’ he said, ‘s’pose it’s
the Devil’s father’s coat
. I’m keepin it!’
    ‘Well,’ she said, ‘if you keep it, you canna keep me.’
    ‘Well,’ he said, ‘if it comes to the choice, you ken where your family is. You can go and stay with them – I’ll stay wi my coat.’
    The old woman couldn’t see what to do with him. But they were still arguing away when up comes the old henwife with her wee hat and coat on and her handbag in one hand, her prayer book and Bible in below her oxter. It was only two steps off the road to the wood where the old man and woman were staying. The old henwife stepped in.
    She said, ‘Hello, Maggie, how are ye?’
    ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘hello!’
    She spoke to old John, ‘Hello, John, how are ye?’
    ‘Oh, I’m no so bad, I’m no any better wi you askin anyway! Ye’ll be up here for me to do some mair cheap work for ye – work for you for nothin.’
    ‘No, John,’ she says, ‘I’m no up tae gie ye mair work for nothing.’ The old woman was dubious right away. The old man was never like this before. ‘To tell ye the truth, John, I’m a bit worried. Maggie was down crackin to me yesterday and she tellt me about the coat you found at the bridge.
    He said, ‘She had nae right tellin ye about the coat. I warned her not to tell naebody about it.’
    ‘Well, John,’ she said, ‘I want to see it.
    He said, ‘Do you want to . . . do ye ken somebody belongin to it?’
    ‘No,’ she said, ‘I dinna ken naebody belongin to it. But I want to see it.’
    So the old man went out and he got the coat. He held it up.
    The old henwife came up close to him: she said, ‘Hold that up by the neck!’
    He held it up. She looked it up and down. She looked at ita long, long while. She could fair see it was just sleek and shining like sealskin.
    She says, ‘John, what did you do with the sixpence you got in the pocket o’ it?’
    ‘Oh,’ he says, ‘did that old bitch o’ mine tell ye that too? Well, I’ve got it in my pocket and I’m keepin it.’
    She says, ‘John, I want ye to do something for me.’
    He says, ‘What is it?’
    She says, ‘I want you to put that sixpence back in the pocket and hold up the coat!’
    The old man looked at her for a long while. But something came over him when he looked at her . . . the way the old henwife looked at him. And he got kind o’ calm and quiet. He held up the coat by the neck. He dropped the sixpence in the coat