The Coming of the Unicorn (5 page)

A long time ago in a small village there lived a poor
widow-woman
who had only one child. She used to find bits of jobs in the village to help keep her and the child alive, but things began to get very bad with her. Work was finally running out. She tried to take up sewing and washing and everything else to help her and the baby survive, but it was no good. There was no more work for her. This is when my story really starts – on Christmas Eve.

The mother raiked round the house for something to make a bite for the wee child but it was no use. She could find nothing. And she was very sad about this. She sat down and started to weep.

The wee child was about three years old and she spoke to her mother, “Mommy, why are you crying?”

“Well,” she said, “I am crying because I have nothing to give you and this is Christmas Eve. All the children in the village are preparing for their great Christmas parties, and their mommies and daddies have been down the village and bought all these wonderful presents. Why is it on Christmas Eve that you and I have to be so poor that I haven't even a single bite to give you, never mind a present?” And she started to cry again.

Then, she thought and wondered what she would do. She said to herself, “Probably if I go down the street I might meet some of my friends and I could maybe borrow or beg something off them.”

But as it was a cold winter's day she didn't want to take the wee
child with her. So, she called the child to her, “You wait, dearie, by the fire there, and mommy will go down the street and see if she can find some of her friends she used to know. Perhaps they will give me something or I can borrow some money from them and I will get you a present for Christmas – when Christmas Morning comes in I will have a present for you!”

So, the wee child sat by the fire and the mother wandered away down the village. Every place she went everyone was sitting behind their locked doors and their lighted windows preparing for Christmas Morning. Christmas trees, Christmas lights up, everything was so nice. And she walked the streets for nearly two hours but could find not one single soul she knew.

Now, by this time the wee child got fed up waiting for her mommy to come back, and the fire burnt low, nearly out. The house was beginning to get dark. She got up… and she was such a beautiful wee child she was, with gold, hair, a head of golden curls. She walked out the door and down the street to look for her mommy. There was snow on the ground and she didn't know where she was going… Eventually she was lost. But, she saw this light up a path leading up to this house. One light in the window. She walked up and right into the house to the fire. The fire was burning bright. The room was bare, bare as could be – one table, one chair. On the floor at the front of the fire was a sheepskin rug. The wee girl sat down and heated her hands. She sat and then started to cry for her mommy. But no one ever heard her, no one bothered. And she lay down on the sheepskin rug and fell asleep.

Now, unknown to this wee child, this was the house of the village miser. He was the most miserable and miserly man in the whole village, who seized every penny, would give nobody nothing and would hardly buy a bite for himself. He was away out walking the streets to see if someone would invite him in for Christmas and give him something – before he would spend a
penny – and he had thousands in gold! But he wandered among the snow till he got fed up. He couldn't get anybody to give him anything, him being a miser. Everybody was in behind their doors on Christmas Eve.

“I will go back to my own house” he said to himself, “and I will have a nice heat by my fire. I will go to my bed and I will not spend any money for Christmas.”

So, he wandered back and when he landed at his own house he walked in through the door. The first thing he saw was the fire burning down low. The reflection of the light was shining on the baby's golden curls lying on the sheepskin mat on his floor.

And the miser said, “Someone has been at my money! Someone has been at my gold, scattered and stole some of my gold!”

And he ran forward to pick up the gold. He got down on his knees and he put his hands… he felt the child's hair – he looked down and he saw the child sleeping. He lifted her up in his lap. And she was still asleep. She put her two arms round his neck because she thought he was her mommy. He let her sleep and went to put some sticks on the fire, then got up on the chair and took the child in his arms. He sat there for nearly an hour with the child in his arms.

“I wonder where you come from, little one,” he said. And then it dawned on him. He had seen the widow woman further up the street a bit with this baby, but it was younger then.

By this time the child's mother had come home. When she found her house empty, the fire out and the child gone she was in a terrible state. She didn't know what to do. She had got nothing, met no friends, nobody. She was heartbroken and to find her child away made it worse. Just then, she heard footsteps – there was a knock on the door.

She said, “Probably that's someone who has found my child,” and she ran out to the door. Here was the miser with the child in
his arms! He walked in. Oh, she was so happy to see the miser. She knew who he was but she had never spoken to him.

He said, “I found your child asleep on my mat by my fire.”

“Yes,” the widow said, “she must have wandered away to look for me. I was down the street looking to see if I could find some of my friends who would help me out because I have nothing to give her to eat, no money to buy her a present.”

And then the miser felt so sad he could hardly part with the baby he had in his arms, but he handed her over to the widow. He said, “Look, you sit down there until I come back. I will find a present for the baby.”

The miser runs back to his house, flings the door open, never even takes time to close the door, walks up to his hidden place where he has all his gold, pulls out the box. There were gold coins in their hundreds! He fills his two pockets with coins and walks down the street. He goes to the first big store he can find – luckily it is just before the store starts to close for the night. He walks in. The man behind the door of the store was amazed to see the miser coming in. A change had taken over the miser altogether, a complete change. Gone was the miserable look all through his face, his eyes were shining brightly.

And the man behind the counter said, “Something queer has come over the miser. I've never seen him look like this before.”

And the miser started to buy. He bought and he bought and he bought. And the man behind the counter was wondering how he was going to pay for this – him being the village miser. Everybody knew how miserable he was! But he bought, as much stuff as he could, and he could barely carry everything he needed under the sun for the widow and her child. And he filled this great big box, he carried it up on his back, took it into the widow's home.

“Now,” he said, “put on a big fire!” And she put on a big fire, and he placed the box on the table.

“Now,” he said, “go and make something for us to eat!” And the widow was so delighted she could have kissed him, she could have fair kissed the miser! And he had this big poke of candy. He took the wee child on his knee and gave her candy. And the widow went away to make supper. She had as much foodstuffs that would have done her for months! She made a good supper for her and the miser, and they sat and they talked. They talked and they talked, and the child fell asleep.

So, they put her to bed and the miser opened another box. He took a great big Christmas stocking and he hung it aside the fire, packed it full of Christmas toys and stuff, and the widow was so delighted. She started to cry.

He said to her, “Everything will be all right. Everything will be all right!”

She said, “I have no friends, I have nobody. And I was so down and out until you came.”

“Well, you have a friend here now,” he said. “People in the village would give you nothing, and the people down the village would give me nothing because I was the miser. You were a poor widow. But tomorrow morning it's Christmas. We will spend it together and have the best Christmas that any of the two of us have ever had.”

And so they did. They had the greatest Christmas they ever had in their lives. Shortly after that the miser married the widow and they never wanted again for anything else for the rest of their days.

And that is the end of my wee story.

After many years Jack had grown very old. He had a family. His wife had died, and he came to live with his youngest daughter in a little cottage by the roadside. She had five or six little children. And these children loved their grandfather old Jack very, very much. They sat in his lap and he told them stories, he told them about how he’d spent his entire life, how he’d met his wife and how he had travelled all over the world, how he’d met goblins and elves. And every night was a different story! These children were enthralled with old Jack, with Grandad’s stories. He put them to sleep every night in bed. And his daughter Mary, she loved her father. Her husband said, “Look we dinna need to worry as long as he’s with the children.” And sometimes the children fell asleep in his lap by listening to his stories.

But in these bygone days there were no cars on the road. It was all horses and carriages. But where he lived Jack’s
son-in-law
, Mary’s husband, was a woodcutter. And he went out to cut wood every day. And old Jack he said to himself, while his son-in-law was at work and the children were in school, he would work in the garden. He would tidy up the garden and grow vegetables. He was more than eighty years old, and he was still Jack!

But one day he was working in the garden when, lo and behold, he saw a coach, four horses and a coach, passing by. And he saw something falling from the coach. The horses drove on. He stepped out o’ the garden and he walked out to the road. It
was a rough old road in these bygone days. And lo and behold there was a handbag, a permanty they called it in these days, a carrying bag. It’s lying in the road! Jack picked it up; it was heavy. He opened it up. It was full, full of money. He carried it back. He took it in. His daughter was busy working in the kitchen. He went up to his bedroom and he hid it under his bed. Jack rubbed his hands together.

He said, “I’ve got golden sovereigns for evermore! Nobody’s going to get them from me… I’m still Jack!”

Now, he had a plot in his head. He said to himself, “Look, I know where it’s come from. This is the tax collection – people collecting the taxes around the town and the country. And it fell off the coach. But,” he said, “it’s mine.” Now, Jack being Jack, he wanted to know how in the world he could come to keep this money. So, being Jack, he got an idea in his head. All day he sat in his room and he thought about it. And then the children came back from school that day.

The laddies and lassies, they all gathered round grandfather as usual and they said, “Grandad, tell us a story, tell us a story!”

He said, “I’ll tell you a story.” He told them stories past the common till they fell asleep.

But the next morning at breakfast time he said to his daughter, “Mary, my lassie, I’m going back to school.”

She says, “Dad, you canna go back to school!”

He says, “I’m going back to school – this morning I go! Give me a pair o’ scissors.”

She says, “What are you wanting scissors for, Dad?”

He says, “To clip my trousers short.”

She says, “Dad, have you gone crazy?”

“No,” he said, “I’m no going crazy. Give me a pair of scissors!” He got a pair o’ scissors and he clipped his trousers above his knee. He said, “Weans! Come here a minute, have you any old schoolbags lying about?”

“Aye, Grandad,” they said, “we have. There’s two-three schoolbags there.”

He says, “Have you any books lying about you’re no wanting?”

“Aye, Grandad,” they said.

Mary said, “Where are you going?”

He said, “I’m going with the weans to school.”

“Oh, no, Grandad,” they said, “you canna go!”

“I’m going with you to school today,” he says. He cut the trousers short, put them on his legs. He got a bag from the weans, he got two books, he put the bag on his back and he went with the weans. They walked to school, and he sat in the classroom with the weans in school.

The teacher said, “What are you doing here, Jack?”

“Aye,” he said, “I’m back to school. I want to learn to read, same as the weans, learn to read.”

But anyway, he sat in the school all day with his short trousers on, with his schoolbag and his books. And he sat with the weans for one day in the school.

But he walked back with the weans that night and he told them stories. He did everything, put his bag away. And the next morning he was out in the garden as usual. The weans were off to school. He never went back to school any more. Only one day he had gone to school.

But sure and behold, he’s in the garden close to the road when what should come driving up but another coach! Two men and their long hats and batons hanging down by their pockets. They pulled in. They stopped the coach by the side of the road.

They came and said, “Old man, you’re busy?”

“Well,” Jack said, “I’m busy.”

“Well,” one said, “you know who we are: we’re the justices, justices o’ the peace.”

“Oh,” he said, “I see, I can see by your coats and your tails and your batons – you’re justices of the peace.”

“The problem is, old man,” they said, “the problem is we want to talk to you. The coach passed here two days ago. And we have lost a permanty with a lot of money. It fell off the coach. Have you by any chance seen it?”

“Oh,” Jack said, “that’s true. I saw it!”

“Oh, you did?” they said. “Oh,” the one looked to the other, “ye’ve seen it?”

Jack said, “Aye.”

He said, “Have you any idea where it is?”

“Well,” he said, “I saw it, eh, let me see now… The four horses and coach passed by. It fell off and I picked it up, I carried it up and I put it alow my bed.”

“That’s good enough,” said the two men, “we have the right person. We’ve got him, right! Do you still have it?”

“Oh,” he said, “I still have it.”

“But,” one says, “when did this happen?”

“Well,” he says, “wait a minute now… It was the day afore I went to school.”

He said, “Old man, what do you mean?”

Jack said,
“The day afore I went to school!”

He said, “How old are you, old man?”

“Well,” he said, “I’ll be eighty-six on my birthday. Come my birthday I’ll be eighty-six!”

And they said, “When did you pick up the bag with the money?”

“Well,” he says, “the day before I went to school I picked up the bag!”

And one justice says to the other, “Look, come on, let’s stop wasting wir time with a silly old fool!” And they drove on.

And Jack was left with the bag of money. He shared it with his wee daughter and they lived happy ever after.