Latest / Manx Fairy Tales / 015 - Billy Beg Tom Beg and the Fairies

Transcript

015 - Billy Beg Tom Beg and the Fairies · Manx Fairy Tales

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen of Manx Fairy Tales. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: All libervox recordings earn the public domain. For more information
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit libervox dot org. Recording by
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Francisca Power. Manx Fairy Tales by Sophia Morrison, Chapter fourteen,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Billy Beg, tom Begg and the Fairies Not far from Delby.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Billy Beg and Tom Beg, two humpback cobblers, lived together
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: on a lonely craft. Billy Beg was sharper and cleverer
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: than tom Beg, who was always at his command. One day,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: billy Beg gave Tom as staff and quoth he tom
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Beg go to the mountain and fetch home the white sheep.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Tom Beg took the staff and went to the mountain,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: but he could not find the white sheep. At last,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: when he was far from home and dusk was coming on,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: he began to think that he had best go back.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: The night was fine and stars in the small crescent
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: moon in the sky. No sound was to be heard
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: but the courteous sharp whistle. Tom was hastening home and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: had almost reached Glen Russian when a gray mist gathered
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: and he lost his way. But it was not long
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: before the mist cleared, and tom Bagg found himself in
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: a green glen such as he had never seen before.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Though he thought he knew every clean within five miles
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: of him, for he was born and reared in the neighborhood.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: He was marveling and wondering where he could be when
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: he heard a far away sound drawing nearer to him. Ah,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: said he to himself. There's more in myself of food
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: in the mountains to night, I'll have company. The sound
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: grew louder. First it was like a humming of bees,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: then like the rushing of glen Mare waterfalls, and last
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: it was like the marching and the murmur of a crowd.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: It was the fairy host of a sudden. The glen
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: was full of fine horses and of little people riding
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: on them, with the lights on their red caps like
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the stars above, and making the night as bright as day.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: There was the blowing of horns, the waving of flags,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: the playing of music, and the barking of many little dogs.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Tom Beck thought that he had never seen anything so
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: splendid as all he saw there in the midst of
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: the drilling and dancing and singing. One of them spied Tom,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and then Tom saw coming towards him the grandest little
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: man he had ever set eyes upon, dressed in gold
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: and silver and silk, shining like a raven's wing. It
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: is bad time you have chosen to come this way,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: said the little man, who was the King. Yes, but
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: it is not here that I am wishing to be, though,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: said Tom. Then said the King, are you one of us?
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: To night? Tom? I am surely, said Tom. Then said
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the King, it will be your duty to take the password.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: You must stand at the foot of the glen, and
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: as each regiment goes by, you must take the password.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: It is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I'll do
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: that with a heart and a half, said Tom. At daybreak,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: the fiddlers took up their fiddles. The fairy army set
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: itself in order. The fiddlers played before the mouth in
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: the glen, and sweet that music was. Each regiment gave
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: the password to Tom as it went by Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: And last of all came the King, and he too
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: gave it Monday Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Saturday. Then he
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: called in manks to one of his men, take the
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: hump from this fellow's back, And before the words were
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: out of his mouth, the hump was whisked of tom
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Begg's bag and thrown into the hedge. How proud now
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: was Tom who so found himself the straightest man in
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the Isle of Man. He went down the mountain and
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: came home early in the morning with light heart and
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: eager step. Billy Beg wondered greatly when he saw Tom
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: beggs so straight and strong. And when Tom Begg had
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: rested and refreshed himself, he told the story how he
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: had met the fairies who came every night to Glen
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Russian to drill. The next night, billy Beg set off
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: along the mountain road and came at last to the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: green glen. About midnight. He heard the trampling of horses,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: the lashing of whips, the barking of dogs, and a
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: great hulla balloon and behole. The fairies and their king,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: their dogs and their horses, all a drill and the glen.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: As Tom Begg had said, when they saw the humpback,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: they all stopped, and one came forward and very crossly
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: asked his business. I am one of yourselves for the
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: night and should be glad to do you some service,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: said Billy Beg. So he was set to take the
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: password Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And at daybreak
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: the King said it's time for us to be off,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: and up came regiment after regiment, giving Billy Beg the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: password Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Last of all
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: came the King with his men and gave the password
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: also Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, said
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Billy Beg, thinking himself clever. Then there was a great outcry.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Get the hump that was taken off that fellow's back
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: last night and tilted on this man's back, said the King,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: with flashing eyes, pointing to the hump that lay under
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: the hedge. Before the words were well out of his mouth,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: the hump was clapped onto Billy Beg's back. Now, said
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the King, be off, and if I ever find you
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: here again, I will clap another hump on your front.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: And on that they all marched away with one great shout,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: and left poor Billy Beg standing where they had found
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: him with a hump growing on each shoulder. And he
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: came home next day dragging one foot after another, with
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: a whizzed face, and as cross as two sticks, with
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: his two humps on his back. And if they are
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: not off, they are there still. End of Chapter fourteen.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Recording by Francisca Power