He had had few hard blows in his time, and had never felt a whip.
"Ye deil's glaur!" cried the fellow, clenching the cruel teeth of one who loved not his brother, "I s' lat ye ken what comes o' brakin' into honest hooses, an' takin' what's no yer ain!" A vision of the gnawed cheese, which he had never touched since the idea of its being property awoke in him, rose before Gibbie's mental eyes, and inwardly he bowed to the punishment.

But the look he had fixed on Angus was not without effect, for the man was a father, though a severe one, and was not all a brute: he turned and changed the cart whip for a gig one with a broken shaft, which lay near.

It was well for himself that he did so, for the other would probably have killed Gibbie.

When the blow fell the child shivered all over, his face turned white, and without uttering even a moan, he doubled up and dropped senseless.

A swollen cincture, like a red snake, had risen all round his waist, and from one spot in it the blood was oozing.