Thistle and Thyme by Sorche Nic Leodhas Page B

give me leave!” said she. And she took the ring from his hand and slipped it on her finger.
    So they were wed and a grand time it was to be sure! Everyone danced until they could dance no more. Then when they’d rested a while they started in all over again. Even the new young stepmother danced at the lass’s wedding and was glad to do it, for the two of them had made it up and were good friends in the end.
    When it was all over, the lad took the lass back to his own village. He was that proud of her that he wanted them to have a look at her. Whom should he meet there but his old love! Her eyes were as blue and her hair was as gold, and she was as straight and tall and slim as ever. But she didn’t look any different to him now from a lot of other blue-eyed, yellow-haired lasses he’d met in his life.
    Then he tucked his wee brown bride under his arm, and took her back to the house on the shore of the cove, which was where both of them wanted to be.
    The eve of the day they got there they walked down to the shore, and who should they find there sitting on a rock out in the water but the mermaid.
    â€œDid you get your own true love?” the mermaid asked of the lad.
    â€œI did so!” said the lad. “And here she is!”
    The mermaid took a look at the lass. “Her eyes are not blue,” said she.
    â€œThey are not,” the lad agreed.
    â€œAnd she has not golden hair,” the mermaid said.
    â€œShe has not,” said the lad.
    â€œAnd I should call her neither slim nor tall,” the mermaid said.
    â€œNay. She’s a wee thing and perhaps a bit on the plump side,” said the lad. “But she is the one I love the best of all.”
    â€œWell then,” said the mermaid, “you’ll not be saying we did not give you what you asked for.” And at that she divit off the rock and into the sea, and that was the last they ever saw of her.
    But they never forgot her. Because they knew it was from her and her father, the sea king, that the lad had got his own true love and all the happiness that came with her.

Michael Scott
and the Demon
    T HERE WAS A MAN AND HIS NAME WAS MICHAEL SCOTT and he was a wizard. He had the knowledge on him of black magic and white magic and the whole of the shades between and he was a great man entirely.
    This same Michael Scott it was who stopped the plague, when it got to Scotland, by gathering the lot of it up into his bag and shutting it tight within. As the plague was the De’il’s own work, he put the bag where the De’il would not be getting at it to let it loose again. And that was in a vault at Glenluce Abbey in Galloway where the De’il would not be liking to go, it being too holy a place for the likes of him.
    That put the De’il against Michael Scott, so he sent one of his demons to be troubling him at his work.
    It was just the sort of a job for the demon, he being young and full of mischief. So Michael Scott had a terrible time of it after the demon came. What with his pots being o’erturned, his cauldon boiling over, his fire smoking, and one thing and another, he’d have had less time wasted if he had just sat with his hands folded.
    It was beyond bearing! So Michael Scott set his mind to mend matters, so that he could go on with his magic arts in peace.
    First, he tried to catch the demon, but that one was too nimble and couldn’t be caught. Then he tried to set a spell on him, but spells only seemed to make the demon livelier. So at last Michael Scott had the idea of trying to make a bargain with him.
    One day, when the demon was hopping around doing whatever mischief he could, Michael Scott said to him, “Och, now, ’tis weary work this must be for you what with all the flitting around you’ve got to do. Sit ye down and rest yourself for a while and let’s have a gab together.”
    â€œOch, I’m not weary at all,” the demon said. “It suits me fine