Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales from Burns to Buchan (Penguin Classics) Read Free

you think the wicked woman did? She went out to the door, where her little stepson, Curly-locks, was playing in the sun, and told him to come in and get his face washed. Andwhile she was washing his face, she struck him on the head with a hammer and stunned him, and popped him into the pot to make soup for his father’s dinner.
    By and by the Goodman came in from his work, and the soup was dished up; and he, and his wife, and his little daughter, Golden-tresses, sat down to sup it.
    ‘Where’s Curly-locks?’ asked the Goodman. ‘It’s a pity he is not here while the soup is hot.’
    ‘How should I ken where he is?’ answered his wife crossly. ‘I have other work to do than to run about after a mischievous laddie all the morning.’
    The Goodman went on supping his soup in silence for some minutes; then he lifted up a little foot in his spoon.
    ‘This is Curly-locks’ foot,’ he cried in horror. ‘There’s been ill work here.’
    ‘Hoots, havers,’ answered his wife, laughing, pretending to be very much amused. ‘What should Curly-locks’ foot be doing in the soup? ’Tis the hare’s forefoot, which is very like that of a bairn.’
    But presently the Goodman took something else up in his spoon.
    ‘This is Curly-locks’ hand,’ he said shrilly. ‘I ken it by the crook in its little finger.’
    ‘The man’s demented,’ retorted his wife, ‘not to ken the hind foot of a hare when he sees it!’
    So the poor father did not say any more, but went away back to his work, sorely perplexed in his mind; while his little daughter, Golden-tresses, who had a shrewd suspicion of what had happened, gathered all the bones from the empty plates, and, carrying them away in her apron, buried them beneath a flat stone, close by a white rose tree that grew by the cottage door.
    And, lo and behold! those poor bones, which she buried with such care –
    ‘Grew and grew,
To a milk-white Doo,
That took its wings,
And away it flew.’
    And at last it lighted on a tuft of grass by a burnside, where two women were washing clothes. It sat there cooing to itself for some time; then it sang this song softly to them:
    ‘Pew, pew,
    My mimmie me slew,
    My daddy me chew,
    My sister gathered my banes,
    And put them between two milk-white stanes.
    And I grew and grew
    To a milk-white Doo,
    And I took to my wings and away I flew.’
    The women stopped washing and looked at one another in astonishment. It was not every day that they came across a bird that could sing a song like that, and they felt that there was something not canny about it.
    ‘Sing that song again, my bonnie bird,’ said one of them at last, ‘and we’ll give you all these clothes!’
    So the bird sang its song over again, and the washerwomen gave it all the clothes, and it tucked them under its right wing, and flew on.
    Presently it came to a house where all the windows were open, and it perched on one of the window-sills, and inside it saw a man counting out a great heap of silver.
    And, sitting on the window-sill, it sang its song to him:
    ‘Pew, pew,
    My mimmie me slew,
    My daddy me chew,
    My sister gathered my banes,
    And put them between two milk-white stanes.
    And I grew and grew
    To a milk-white Doo,
    And I took to my wings and away I flew.’
    The man stopped counting his silver, and listened. He felt, like the washerwomen, that there was something not canny about this Doo. When it had finished its song, he said:
    ‘Sing that song again, my bonnie bird, and I’ll give you a’ this siller in a bag.’
    So the Doo sang its song over again, and got the bag of silver, which it tucked under its left wing. Then it flew on.
    It had not flown very far, however, before it came to a mill where two millers were grinding corn. And it settled down on a sack of meal and sang its song to them.
    ‘Pew, pew,
    My mimmie me slew,
    My daddy me chew,
    My sister gathered my banes,
    And put them between two milk-white stanes.
    And I grew and grew
    To a milk-white Doo,
    And