"Some tell about their sweathearts,
How they tirled them to the winnock,
But I’ll tell you a bonnie tale
About a guid oatmeal bannock."
There was once an old man and his wife,
who lived in a dear little cottage by the side of a burn. They were
a very canty and contented couple, for they had enough to live on,
and enough to do. Indeed, they considered themselves quite rich,
for, besides their cottage and their garden, they possessed two
sleek cows, five hens and a cock, an old cat, and two kittens.
The old man spent his time looking after the cows, and the hens, and
the garden; while the old woman kept herself busy spinning.
One day, just after breakfast, the old woman thought that she would
like an oatmeal bannock for her supper that evening, so she took
down her bakeboard, and put on her girdle, and baked a couple of
fine cakes, and when they were ready she put them down before the
fire to harden.
While they were toasting, her husband came in from the byre, and sat
down to take a rest in his great armchair. Presently his eyes fell
on the bannocks, and, as they looked very good, he broke one through
the middle and began to eat it.
When the other bannock saw this it determined that it should not
have the same fate, so it ran across the kitchen and out of the door
as fast as it could. And when the old woman saw it disappearing, she
ran after it as fast as her legs would carry her, holding her
spindle in one hand and her distaff in the other.
But she was old, and the bannock was young, and it ran faster than
she did, and escaped over the hill behind the house. It ran, and it
ran, and it ran, until it came to a large newly thatched cottage,
and, as the door was open, it took refuge inside, and ran right
across the floor to a blazing fire, which was burning in the first
room that it came to.
Now, it chanced that this house belonged to a tailor, and he and his
two apprentices were sitting cross-legged on the top of a big table
by the window, sewing away with all their might, while the tailor's
wife was sitting beside the fire carding lint.
When the wee bannock came trundling across the floor, all three
tailors got such a fright that they jumped down from the table and
hid behind the Master Tailor's wife.
“Hoot,” she said, “what a set of cowards ye be!
‘Tis but a nice wee bannock. Get hold of it and divide it between
you, and I’ll fetch you all a drink of milk.”
So she jumped up with her lint and her lint cards, and the tailor
jumped up with his great shears, and one apprentice grasped the line
measure, while another took up the saucer full of pins; and they all
tried to catch the wee bannock. But it dodged them round and round
the fire, and at last it got safely out of the door and ran down the
road, with one of the apprentices after it, who tried to snip it in
two with his shears.
It ran too quickly for him, however, and at last he stopped and went
back to the house, while the wee bannock ran on until it came to a
tiny cottage by the roadside. It trundled in at the door, and there
was a weaver sitting at his loom, with his wife beside him, winding
a clue of yarn.
“What’s that, Tibby?” said the weaver, with a start, as the little
cake flew past him.
“Oh!” cried she in delight, jumping to her feet, “’tis a wee
bannock. I wonder where it came from?”
“Dinna bother your head about that, Tibby,” said her man, “but grip
it, my woman, grip it.”
But it was not so easy to get hold of the wee bannock. It was in
vain that the Goodwife threw her clue at it, and that the Goodman
tried to chase it into a corner and knock it down with his shuttle.
It dodged, and turned, and twisted, like a thing bewitched, till at
last it flew out at the door again, and vanished down the hill, “for
all the world,” as the old woman said, “like a new tarred sheep, or
a daft cow.”
In the next house that it came to it found the Good wife in the
kitchen, kirning. She had just filled her kirn, and there was still
some cream standing in the bottom of her cream jar.
“Come away, little bannock,” she cried when she saw it. “Thou art
come in just the nick of time, for I am beginning to feel hungry,
and I’ll have cakes and cream for my dinner.”
But the wee bannock hopped round to the other side of the kirn, and
the Goodwife after it. And she was in such a hurry that she nearly
upset the kirn; and by the time that she had put it right again, the
wee bannock was out at the door and half-way down the brae to the
mill.
The miller was sifting meal in the trough, but he straightened
himself up when he saw the little cake.
“It’s a sign of plenty when bannocks are running about with no one
to look after them,” he said; “but I like bannocks and cheese, so
just come in, and I will give thee a night’s lodging.”
But the little bannock had no wish to be eaten up by the miller, so
it turned and ran out of the mill, and the miller was so busy that
he did not trouble himself to run after it.
After this it ran on, and on, and on, till it came to the smithy,
and it popped in there to see what it could see.
The smith was busy at the anvil making horse-shoe nails, but he
looked up as the wee bannock entered.
“If there be one thing I am fond of it is a glass of ale and a
well-toasted cake,” he cried. “So come inbye here, and welcome to
ye.”
But as soon as the little bannock heard of the ale, it turned and
ran out of the smithy as fast as it could and the disappointed smith
picked up his hammer and ran after it. And when he saw that he could
not catch it, he flung his heavy hammer at it, in the hope of
knocking it down, but, luckily for the little cake, he missed his
aim.
After this the bannock came to a farmhouse, with a great stack of
peats standing at the back of it. In it went, and ran to the
fireside. In this house the master had all the lint spread out on
the floor, and was cloving it with an iron rod, while the mistress
was heckling what he had already cloven.
“Oh, Janet,” cried the Goodman in surprise, “here comes in a little
bannock. It looks rare and good to eat. I’ll have one half of it.”
“And I’ll have the other half,” cried the Goodwife. “Hit it over the
back with your cloving-stick, Sandy, and knock it down. Quick, or it
will be out at the door again.”
But the bannock played “jook-about,” and dodged behind a chair.
“Hoot!” cried Janet contemptuously, for she thought that her husband
might easily have hit it, and she threw her heckle at it.
But the heckle missed it, just as her husband’s cloving-rod had
done, for it played “jook-about” again, and flew out of the house.
This time it ran up a burnside till it came to a little cottage
standing among the heather.
Here the Goodwife was making porridge for the supper in a pot over
the fire, and her husband was sitting in a corner plaiting ropes of
straw with which to tie up the cow.
“Oh, Jock! come here, come here,” cried the Goodwife. “Thou art aye
crying for a little bannock for thy supper; come here, histie,
quick, and help me to catch it.”
“Ay, ay,” assented Jock, jumping to his feet and hurrying across the
little room. “But where is it? I cannot see it.”
“There, man, there,” cried his wife, “under that chair. Run thou to
that side; I will keep to this.”
So Jock ran into the dark corner behind the chair; but, in his
hurry, he tripped and fell, and the wee bannock jumped over him and
flew laughing out at the door.
Through the whins and up the hillside it ran, and over the top of
the hill, to a shepherd's cottage on the other side.
The inmates were just sitting down to their porridge3 and the
Goodwife was scraping the pan.
“Save us and help us!" she exclaimed, stopping with the spoon
half-way to her mouth. “There's a wee bannock come in to warm itself
at our fireside."
“Sneck the door," cried the husband, "and we'll try to catch it. It
would come in handy after the porridge."
But the bannock did not wait until the door was sneckit. It turned
and ran as fast as it could, and the shepherd and his wife and all
the bairns ran after it, with their spoons in their hands, in hopes
of catching it.
And when the shepherd saw that it could run faster than they could,
he threw his bonnet at it, and almost struck it; but it escaped all
these dangers, and soon it came to another house, where the folk
were just going to bed.
The Goodman was half undressed, and the Goodwife was raking the
cinders carefully out of the fire.
“What's that?" said he, “for the bowl of brose that I had at
supper-time wasna' very big."
"Catch it, then," answered his wife, "and I'll have a bit, too.
Quick! quick! Throw your coat over it or it will be away."
So the Goodman threw his coat right on the top of the little
bannock, and almost managed to smother it; but it struggled bravely,
and got out, breathless and hot, from under it. Then it ran out into
the grey light again, for night was beginning to fall, and the
Goodman ran out after it, without his coat. He chased it and chased
it through the stackyard and across a field, and in amongst a fine
patch of whins. Then he lost it; and, as he was feeling cold without
his coat, he went home.
As for the poor little bannock, it thought that it would creep under
a whin bush and lie there till morning, but it was so dark that it
never saw that there was a fox's hole there. So it fell down the
fox's hole, and the fox was very glad to see it, for he had had no
food for two days.
“Oh, welcome, welcome," he cried; and he snapped it through the
middle with his teeth, and that was the end of the poor wee bannock.
And if a moral be wanted for this tale, here it is: That people
should never be too uplifted or too cast down over anything, for all
the good folk in the story thought that they were going to get the
bannock, and, lo and behold! the fox got it after all. |