SKILLYWIDDEN
From Cornwall
Everyone knows that before King Arthur ruled in Britain, the Danes conquered Cornwall. Then many of the rich Cornish folk buried their gold and treasures, and fled to the land of Wales. A few years after that King Arthur came with his knights, and drove the Danes out of Cornwall. Then the folk came back, but never again could they find their buried treasures. And to-day none but the Spriggans know where the gold is hidden.
Well, one morning not very long ago Uncle Billy of Trevidga was out on the side of a hill, cutting away the furze that was as high as his head, with bare places here and there covered with white clover, heath, and whortleberries. Uncle Billy was working hard, when he spied the prettiest little creature, a real little man, not bigger than a kitten, sleeping on a bank of wild thyme. He was dressed in a green coat, sky-blue breeches, and diamond-buckled shoes. His tiny cocked hat was drawn over his face, to shade it from the sun.
Uncle Billy stooped and looked at him, and longed to carry him home to his children, for hehad a houseful of little ones, boys and girls. So he took off his cuff, and slipped it quickly over the Spriggan—for a Spriggan it was that lay there—before he could wake.
The little fellow opened his pretty eyes, and said in a sleepy voice: “Mammy! Where are you? Mammy! Daddy!” Then he saw Uncle Billy looking at him. “Who are you?” he said. “You’re a fine, great giant! I want my Mammy! Can you find her for me?”
“I do not know where she is,” answered Uncle Billy. “But come home with me, and play with my children, until your Mammy finds you.”
“Very well,” said the Spriggan. “I love to ride goats over the rocks, and to have milk and blackberries for supper. Will you give me some?”
“Yes, my son,” said Uncle Billy; and with that he picked up the Spriggan gently, and carried him home.
Well, you should have seen the children! They were so happy to own a Spriggan! They set the little fellow on the hearth, and he played with them as if he had known them always. Uncle Billy and his wife were delighted, and the children shouted for joy, when the pretty little man capered and jumped about. They called him Bobby Spriggan. Twice a day they gave him a wee mug of milk and a few blackberries, and now and then some haws for a change.
In the mornings, while Uncle Billy’s wife and the children were doing the housework, Bobby Spriggan sat perched on the faggots in the wood-corner, and sang and chirped away like a Robin Redbreast.
When the hearth was swept, and the kitchen made tidy, and Uncle Billy’s wife was knitting, Bobby would dance for hours on the hearthstone. The faster her needles clicked, the faster he danced and spun around and around. And the children laughed and clapped their hands, and danced with him.
A week or so after Bobby Spriggan had been found, Uncle Billy had to leave home. As he wished to keep the little fellow safe and sound until he told where the crocks of Cornish gold were hidden, Uncle Billy shut him up with the youngest children in the barn, and put a strong padlock on the door.
“Now stay in the barn and play,” called Uncle Billy to the children. “And don’t try to get out, or when I come home you’ll get a walloping,” said he, and then went away.
The children laughed a part of the time, and a part of the time they cried, for they did not like to be locked in the barn. But Bobby Spriggan was as merry as a cricket. He danced and sang, and peeped through the cracks in the wall at the men who were working in the fields. And whenthe men went to dinner, up jumped Bobby and unbarred a window.
“Come along, children!” he cried. “Now for a game of hide-and-seek in the furze!”
Then he sprang out the window, and the children followed after. And away they all ran to play in the furze.
They were shouting and throwing whortleberries about, when suddenly they saw a little man and woman no bigger than Bobby. The little man was dressed like Bobby, except that he wore high riding-boots with silver spurs. The little woman’s green gown was spangled with glittering stars. Diamond shoe-buckles shone on her high-heeled shoes, and her tiny steeple-crowned hat was perched on a pile of golden curls, wreathed with heath blossoms. The pretty little soul was weeping and wringing her hands, and crying:—
“O my dear, tender Skillywidden! Where canst thou be! Shall I never set eyes on thee again, my only one, my only joy?”
“Go back! Go back!” cried Bobby Spriggan to the children. Then he called out: “Here I am, Mammy!”
And just as he said, “Here I am,” the little man and the little woman, and Bobby Spriggan himself, who was their precious Skillywidden, vanished, and were seen no more.
The children cried and cried, and went home. And when Uncle Billy came back you may be sure that he whipped them all soundly. And it served them right, for if they had minded and stayed in the barn, Bobby Spriggan would have shown Uncle Billy where the Cornish gold was hidden.