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.