[{"node":{"title":"Hanna168","Collections":"Part Two","Contributor":"Linen Hall Library","Coverage":"1951","Creator":"Linen Hall Library","Date":"Thursday, April 7, 2016","Format":"TIFF","Identifier":"Hanna168","Item Description":"Manuscript","Keywords":"Life, Bastard","Language":"English","Path":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/hanna168","Publisher":"Linen Hall Library","Relation":"Linen Hall Library","Rights":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA","Scanned image":{"src":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/Hanna168_0.jpg","alt":""},"Source":"LHL Archive","Transcript":"\ufeff162\n\nleant against the corner of the house, breathless, between laughter and\ntears.\n\nBut it was Hamilton who filled the weft of his life. With him he\ncould walk the fields or sit for hours in the barn where Hamilton practised\nhis hobby of basket-making. As the man bent and thumped the scobes the boy\nwould patiently imitate him with lighter reeds until, his childish fancy\ntiring of the game, he would produce a knotty and cracked plait of grass.\nThey sat together one day in the barn while Hamilton contrived an egg-basket\nfor Sarah. The boy sat some little distance from the man, singing softly to\nhimself, half-in and half-out of a beam of sunlight that slanted through the\nopen door and set his hair gleaming every time ho raised his head to watch\na butterfly lurch across the sunlight, or a hen trot in, pause with upraised\nleg, and then retreat with a querulous matter.\n\nThe boy, who was scooping the white pith from a piece of boretree,\nturned round to pick up a pretty speckled feather which he could use as\na sail. For the first time the words of his song became audible to Hamilton:\n\nI'm a wee by-blow,\nI'm a wee bastard -\n\nThe man threw down the basket and springing across the barn plucked the child\nto his feet. \"What was that I heard ye singing!\" he shouted. Andrew, who\nhad burst into a gleeful laugh at Hamilton's rush, was frozen into silence\nat the sight of the man's glowering face, \"What were those words ye were\nsinging?\" Hamilton shouted and shook him roughly. Frightened by the shaking\nand the angry persistent questions, Andrew burst into tears, Hamilton raised\nhis hard cupped hand and then paused and looked down at the boy's face.\nGathering him up under his arm he hurried into the house with him. At his\nrepeated calls, Sarah appeared from the dairy. \"Ach, what's wrong wi' the\n","Type":"Text"}}]