Chapter 18

THE MUCKLEY

Every child in Thrums went to bed on the night before the Muckley
hugging a pirly, or, as the vulgar say, a money-box; and all the pirlies
were ready for to-morrow, that is to say, the mouths of them had been
widened with gully knives by owners now so skilful at the jerk which
sends their contents to the floor that pirlies they were no longer.
"Disgorge!" was the universal cry, or, in the vernacular, "Out you come,
you sweer deevils!"

Not a coin but had its history, not a boy who was unable to pick out his
own among a hundred. The black one came from the 'Sosh, the bent lad he
got for carrying in Ronny-On's sticks. Oh michty me, sure as death he
had nearly forgotten the one with the warts on it. Which to spend first?
The goldy one? Na faags, it was ower ill to come by. The scartit one?
No, no, it was a lucky. Well, then, the one found in the rat's hole?
(That was a day!) Ay, dagont, ay, we'll make the first blatter with it.

It was Tommy's first Muckley, and the report that he had thirteen pence
brought him many advisers about its best investment. Even Corp Shiach
(five pence) suspended hostilities for this purpose. "Mind this," he
said solemnly, "there's none o' the candies as sucks so long as
Californy's Teuch and Tasty. Other kinds may be sweeter, but Teuch and
Tasty lasts the longest, and what a grip it has! It pulls out your
teeth!" Corp seemed to think that this was a recommendation.

"I'm nane sure o' Teuch and Tasty," Birkie said. "If you dinna keep a
watch on it, it slips ower when you're swallowing your spittle."

"Then you should tie a string to it," suggested Tommy, who was thought
more of from that hour.

_Beware of Pickpockets!_ Had it not been for placards with this glorious
announcement (it is the state's first printed acknowledgment that boys
and girls form part of the body politic) you might have thought that the
night before the Muckley was absurdly like other nights. Not a show had
arrived, not a strange dog, no romantic figures were wandering the
streets in search of lodgings, no stands had sprung up in the square.
You could pass hours in pretending to fear that when the morning came
there would be no fairyland. And all the time you _knew_.

About ten o'clock Ballingall's cat was observed washing its face, a
deliberate attempt to bring on rain. It was immediately put to death.

Tommy and Elspeth had agreed to lie awake all night; if Tommy nipped
Elspeth, Elspeth would nip Tommy. Other children had made the same
arrangement, though the experienced ones were aware that it would fail.
If it was true that all the witches were dead, then the streets of
stands and shows and