Twelve Great Black Cats (16 page)

Then she went off back down the road toward home with the bag of gold in one hand and her good stout blackthorn stick that her lover gave her in the other. She kept on going, one foot after the other, until she came to the fishing village where she was born.

Sitting there on the jetty, looking out to the sea, was the lad she loved. He was mourning two losses, for not only was his bonnie fishing boat gone forever but his dear lass whom he loved so well had left him, too. The mood in his heart was so dark that he doubted that he'd ever lay eyes on her again. With his back to her and himself so deep in thought he did not see her coming toward him, nor know she was near, until she sat down beside him and plumped the bag of gold in his lap.

“There, lad,” said the lass. “There's our fortune, and you shall buy a grand new boat, bigger and better in every way than the one that went down in the sea. And there will be enough to build us a house to live in when we are married.”

But it was not the sack of gold he was minding. He let it slip from his knee unheeded and reached out to take his lass in his arms. “I could do without a ship and a house,” he told her. “But I could never see my way to doing without your dear self.”

The fishing boat was bought and it was bigger and better than any one in the harbor. The house was built, too, and not one in the village was finer. The lad and the lass were married and settled down happily together. And as years passed by many and many a time she told her children and her grandchildren also, the story of her adventure with the dead man and the good stout blackthorn stick.

Glossary

an dun na cuantaiche:
(an dûn na kŭăn/-ttech-å), the castle of the rover.

an traigh bhean:
(an træ-y when), the woman's shore.

aye: always, forever.

bens: hills, mountains.

Ben Nevis: a mountain in the Highlands near Loch Linne; at 4,406 feet, it is the highest point in the British Isles.

bothan: (baw/-hawn), a hut.

braw: brave, hearty, brawny.

cailleach: (kăly/-ak), an old woman.

caillean: (kai-lean/), a young girl, colleen.

cairn: a quarry, a pile of stones.

callant: a flashy young fellow, a gallant.

catteran: a Highland freebooter.

ceilidh:
(kay/-lee), a gathering, a party, a merrymaking, a visit.

clachan: a small hamlet.

cleev: skein, as of wool.

coof: a fool.

coronach: a ritualistic death chant or song.

de'il: not a; a colloquial expression, contraction of “Devil.”

dule: grief.

fash: worry, bother.

fipple flute: a kind of small wind instrument.

ghillie: a manservant.

greeting: weeping.

grue: curdle.

havers! nonsense!

hiero! an exclamation like “So!” or “Well now!”

Hogmanay: New Year in Scotland.

howk: to throw oneself into a task.

lawks! a mild expression of surprise; a corruption of “Lord!”

liefer: rather.

losh: an exclamation combining “Lord!” and “Gosh!”

mo chu:
(mo cū), my dog.

mo graidh:
(mo grah/-ēē), my dear.

nighean mhúirninn:
(nyė/-un mûér-nin), beloved girl.

och! ochone! oh! o-o-o-oh!

omadhaun:
(ō/-maw-hawn), a crazy fellow, a fool.

Sassenach: Saxon, particularly an Englishman.

sgian-dubh:
(skēān/-dŭgh), dirk, dagger.

shielan: group of shielings.

shieling: (shēē/-ling), a cottage.

shoon: shoes.

sluagh: (sloo/-ah), a great many.

thole: bear, abide, withstand.

toom: empty.

About the Author

Sorche Nic Leodhas (1898–1969) was born LeClaire Louise Gowans in Youngstown, Ohio. After the death of her first husband, she moved to New York and attended classes at Columbia University. Several years later, she met her second husband and became LeClaire Gowans Alger. She was a longtime librarian at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she also wrote children's books. Shortly before she retired in 1966, she began publishing Scottish folktales and other stories under the pseudonym Sorche Nic Leodhas, Gaelic for
Claire, daughter of Louis
. In 1963, she received a Newbery Honor for
Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland
. Alger continued to write and publish books until her death 1969.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1971 by Jenifer Jill Digby

Cover design by Liz Connor

ISBN: 978-1-4976-3655-2

This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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New York, NY 10014

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