Trusty

DESCRIPTION: Trusty, a mastiff, bites a boy. The boy's mother hires an assassin to take revenge. The dog is shot to death[?]. Mother regrets her action: "at even when I'm wakin' and weary Oh wha will bark an keep me cheery"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "There was a tyke, a tyke o' fame An Trusty was the doggie's name." Trusty bites a boy whose mother takes the boy to a doctor. Expecting her son to die she wants "the venimous beast" killed. She takes her complaint to a judge who claims that, with the law as it stands, "nae judge nor jury upon earth Can gar the doggie gie his aith." Mother hires a lad who "laid the doggie fairly deed" "wi' a round spouter." The deed done, she repents and mourns the murder. "Tho' baith [mother and son] were deid, there's nae great scaith The dog was better than them baith." [The story ends here but we were promised at the beginning that Trusty's "coat o' guid black hair ... His coat o' mail, it did him save"]
KEYWORDS: revenge death humorous dog mother doctor judge
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 496, "Trusty" (1 text)
Roud #5981
File: GrD3496

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