Monday, December 22, 2008

A Scottish Fable


To Keep Them Warm: A Scottish Fable
adapted by Carol Byron May 2001
from Gazetteer of Scottish & Irish Ghosts
by Peter Underwood published in 1972


Once upon a time, a loving wife and mother, Annie McVee,
died of a sudden illness, leaving two children; Harold and Eleanor,
aged five and seven who now had only their hard-working father,
Alex McVee, to look after them.

The children helped with chores as their father had much work
to do on the farm. He worked from dawn to dusk. He and the
children missed their wife and mother, Annie, very much.

One of the father’s friends, Tommy, had an older sister, Jane,
who never married. When this sister was quite young, she lost
an eye. Several red-hot embers from her family’s fireplace
flew out and hit her face when her brother Tommy had carelessly
tossed a log on the fire she was sitting next to. Their mother’s
comment at the time had been, “Thank goodness the ember
didn’t strike the boy.” The sister’s missing eye had disfigured
her face and made her bitter, although she was known as a
hard worker in the neighborhood.

Encouraged by his friend, Alex, the father, married the sister
with one eye, so that the children would have a mother and the
meals and the house would be taken care of. As a new stepmother,
Jane treated the children meanly. Perhaps this was because
her own mother treated her meanly. “Children cannot be
pampered, if they are to grow up responsible,” was her favorite
expression.

Jane also resented the first wife’s treasured household goods.
For example, one of the children’s mother’s prized possessions
had been a large supply of blankets and linens. As new wife,
Jane stored these sheets and blankets away in her hope chest
under lock and key.The nights got colder as summer turned to
autumn. The one-eyed mean stepmother refused to bring out
the warm blankets for the children’s bed.

All they had on their bed was a few worn-out rags. By the time
winter settled in, the children had to huddle together every
night, shivering with the cold, until they fell asleep. Jane,
of course, had a very warm blanket on her own bed.

Eleanor prayed to their mother to help keep them warm
and a strange thing began to happen. Each morning, when
the children woke up, much to their surprise, they found
themselves wrapped cozy and warm in their mother’s
blankets. Their stepmother was livid.

She screamed at them and smacked them up side their heads
in frustration. But she knew in her heart that the only key
to the chest where the blankets were locked was safely hidden
under her own pillow.

Then one cold winter’s night, young Harold fell asleep quickly
but Eleanor could not. She was so cold, so bitter cold, that she
lay wake shivering, deep into the night. Suddenly, the bedroom
door opened, and Eleanor saw a ghostly lady dressed in a long
shimmering white dress. As the lady approached, the lock
on the chest sprang open and she brought out two blankets
and lovingly wrapped the children in them.

As the lady leaned down to kiss the children, Eleanor
recognized her mother, Annie. Eleanor whispered, “Mother?”
but the ghostly figure turned away and vanished into the
darkness. When Eleanor told her family what she had seen,
the stepmother relented and allowed the children to have
their mother's blankets.