In spite of all this, however, there were still people who believed that Finn Learson had been no more than the young man he had seemed to be. And so the argument went on, with these same people always claiming that Robbie was just telling the kind of story his Old Da used to tell, and that it would be foolish to think otherwise.
So a great many more years went by, until Robbie himself was an Old Da, with grandchildren who had never heard of the Selkie Folk until he spoke of them. Yet still, even after the passage of all those years, the one-eyed selkie continued to appear in the voe; and every now and then there would be some youngster who came asking Robbie questions about it.
To each and every one of these young folk, then, he told of the stranger who came ashore, exactly as that story has been given here; and it no longer bothered him if any of them said, “I don’t believe that!”
Robbie could remember himself saying the very same thing the first time he had been told about the Great Selkie. Also, he was more than old by that time. He was wise – very wise; and so he never tried to convince anyone against that person’s will. Instead, he did exactly what his Old Da would have done. He just laughed, and went on with another story.
Copyright
Kelpies is an imprint of Floris Books
First published in 1975 by Hamish Hamilton Children’s Books
First published in Kelpies in 1994
This eBook edition published in 2014
Copyright © 1975 Maureen Mollie Hunter McIlwraith
Mollie Hunter has asserted her right under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents act to be identified as the Author of this work
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the prior permission of
Floris Books, 15 Harrison Gardens, Edinburgh
www.florisbooks.co.uk
The publisher acknowledges subsidy from Creative Scotland towards the publication of this volume
British Library CIP Data available
ISBN 978–178250–086–5
A Stranger Came Ashore Page 12
