Well, he hadn’t eat but a mouthful or so, when he stops an’ begins to laugh.
“What is it?” says she.
“A-why,” says he, “I was out a huntin’ to-day, an’ I got away to a place in the wood I’d never seen afore. An’ there was an old chalk-pit. An’ I heard a sort of a hummin’, kind o’. So I got off my hobby,5
an’ I went right quiet to the pit, an’ I looked down. Well, what should there be but the funniest little black thing you ever set eyes on. An’ what was that a-doing on, but that had a little spinnin’-wheel, an’ that were a-spinnin’ wonderful fast, an’ a-twirlin’ that’s tail. An’ as that span, that sang:My name’s TOM TIT TOT.
Well, when the mawther heard this, she fared as if she could ha’ jumped out of her skin for joy, but she didn’t say a word.
Next day that there little thing looked so maliceful when he came for the flax. And when night came, she heard that a-knockin’ on the window panes. She oped the window, an’ that come right in on the ledge. That were grinnin’ from ear to ear an’ Oo! that’s tail were twirlin’ round so fast.
“What’s my name?” that says, as that gonned her the skeins.
“Is that Solomon?” she says, pretendin’ to be afeard.
“Noo, t’ain’t,” that says, and that come further into the room.
“Well, is that Zebedee?” says she again.
“Noo, t’ain’t,” says the impet. An’ then that laughed an’ twirled that’s tail till you couldn’t hardly see it.
“Take time, woman,” that says; “next guess, and you’re mine.” An’ that stretched out that’s black hands at her.
Well, she backed a step or two, an’ she looked at it, and then she laughed out, and says she, a-pointing of her finger at it:
Yar name’s TOM TIT TOT.
Well, when that heard her, that shrieked awful and away that flew into the dark, and she never saw it no more.
From “Fairy Gold,” edited by Ernest Rhys.
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