'
"Then as soon as she was off, the neighbors said: 'Now is the time
that we'll be done with that imp. We'll take him and have him
christened while she's away, and we'll not give her the chance to put
it off again because he cries.'
"So they went to the house and one of the women came up to the bed and
clapped a quilt over him and had him wrapped up in it before he knew
what was happening to him, and away they all went down toward the
brook, on the way to the priest. Well, he kicked and he struggled to
get free, but the woman held him so tight it was no use. But when they
came to the running water, it was then he began bellowing like a herd
of bulls, and kicking and pulling so that it was all she could do to
hold him.
"She got her foot on the first of the stepping-stones, and it was then
he began to get heavy, as if it was a stone that she was carrying. But
she held hard and reached the second stone, and it seemed to her that
he was nothing but a lump of lead, only still roaring and struggling;
and, what with that and the rushing of the water below her, she began
to get dizzy, but still she held on, and she had her foot on the stone
in the middle of the stream when plump down he fell through the quilt
that he was wrapped in, as if it had been nothing but a muslin
handkerchief.
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