Katie Morag of Course!

by Mairi Hedderwick

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  Title Page

  Saturday Sweets

  The Pony and the Hamster

  The Camping Holiday

  About the Author

  Copyright

  About the Book

  Come and join bestselling picture-book star Katie Morag and her family in three new island adventures …

  On the Isle of Struay, where Katie Morag lives, there are always plenty of things to do, like finding the perfect present for Grandmother’s day. And there’s a new arrival – Grannie Island has got a pony and Katie Morag just can’t wait to have a ride. Then the Big Boy Cousins come to stay and they’ve got more adventures planned …

  Saturday Sweets

  ‘It is Grandmother’s Day next Sunday,’ Mrs McColl reminded Katie Morag McColl and her little brother Liam one Wednesday morning. ‘Grandma Mainland is off on holiday in Australia but Grannie Island has invited us over for tea. What will you give her for a present?’

  ‘Sweeties!’ chorused Katie Morag and Liam, immediately.

  ‘Which kind do you think she would like?’ queried Mr McColl, who ran the village shop on the Isle of Struay. He took great pride in filling all his sweetie jars with the latest supplies that came on the big boat from the mainland.

  There were peppermint balls, sherbet dabs, long liquorice laces, gobstoppers, caramel chews and chocolate bears, to name but a few.

  ‘We’ll just have to taste them all and then choose,’ said Katie Morag, looking ever so seriously at her mother and father. Liam agreed. He always agreed with his big sister when he knew she was on to a good thing.

  Katie Morag and Liam were only allowed to spend part of their pocket money on sweets on a Saturday. They saved the rest in their piggybanks. That was the McColl family rule. Sometimes it was hard waiting for Saturday to come. But then it made Saturday such a special day. Katie Morag would spend all week choosing her bagful of sweeties in her head, sometimes changing her mind at the last minute and worrying if she had made the right choice. Some sweets could be such a disappointment.

  On this particular week, Saturday could not come soon enough, because she and Liam would have the added excitement of choosing sweeties for Grannie Island, too. And because of the special occasion, Mr and Mrs McColl had agreed that Katie Morag and Liam would have to spend all their pocket money on sweets, just this once. What a sweetie spree!

  On the Friday, Katie Morag raked through the recycle bin at school for something special to hold all the sweeties that Grannie was going to have. She found an empty chocolate box.

  The teacher said she could have it when she told him the reason. ‘Lucky Grannie Island!’ he smiled.

  ‘We’ll get lots of sweeties for Grannie in there,’ she told Liam, when she got home and hid the box under her bed. ‘Now we must make her a card.’ Katie Morag drew a picture of Grannie Island on her tractor and Liam stuck loveheart stickers all round the edges. ‘BIG decision day!’ smiled Mrs McColl next morning when she gave Katie Morag and Liam their pocket money.

  Mr McColl took down sweetie jars from the shelf and put them on the counter.

  ‘Don’t take too long,’ he warned. Saturday was a busy day in the shop and the islanders were queuing up behind Katie Morag and Liam. They didn’t take long.

  They ordered one of every kind and more of the same until all their money was gone.

  Racing up to their bedroom, Katie Morag and Liam started the difficult job of tasting each sweet and trying to decide which ones would go into Grannie’s box, which lay empty on Katie Morag’s bed. It took all afternoon. Katie Morag and Liam could not agree on which ones Grannie would like best. They knew the ones THEY liked best – the gobstoppers, the caramel chews and the chocolate bears.

  ‘Grannie would choke on gobstoppers and caramel chews would be bad for the fillings in her teeth,’ said Katie Morag.

  ‘And the chocolate bears are really for children,’ added Liam. Soon all the gobstoppers, caramel chews and chocolate bears were finished.

  The remaining sweets had to be tasted again to make quite sure they were the right ones for Grannie. By teatime it was all over. You’ve guessed it – all the sweeties were gone, except for one long liquorice lace. Katie Morag put it in the very empty box back under the bed. She was feeling awful, in more ways than one.

  Not surprisingly, Katie Morag and Liam were not at all hungry at teatime even though it was their favourite: sausages, beans, fried mushrooms and mashed tatties. They certainly did not want any cake or pudding.

  Grannie was over for tea. ‘I bet you two have eaten far too many sweeties today,’ she said. Katie Morag and Liam hung their heads. Oh dear, oh dear!

  It was Grandmother’s Day TOMORROW! What would they do?

  That night in bed Katie Morag thought and thought. She knew she couldn’t ask for more money. And she couldn’t wait until next Saturday. Oh, it would be the easiest thing in the world to do without sweeties next week just to be able to give Grannie her present. But next week would be too late.

  Katie Morag even thought in her sleep and in the morning she came up with the answer.

  ‘We will each give Grannie one of our favourite things,’ she told Liam when she woke him up. ‘And it must be something we bought with our own money.’ Liam reluctantly agreed.

  Choosing items to go into the box took nearly as long as eating all the sweets the previous day. Liam found it very difficult to make up his mind but found it easier when Katie Morag explained that he would always be able to play with his little wind-up car whenever he went over to Grannie’s house.

  Katie Morag chose her miniature pony with its very own tiny brush for brushing its mane and tail. She draped the long liquorice lace round the pony’s neck like reins and sellotaped the box shut.

  After breakfast Katie Morag and Liam set off as fast as they could for Grannie Island’s on the other side of the bay.

  The rest of the McColl family were coming along later. Katie Morag wanted to get there as soon as possible before her parents saw that there was no big box of sweets for Grannie. Maybe Mr and Mrs McColl would think Grannie had eaten them all by the time they got there?

  ‘Happy Grandmother’s Day, Grannie!’ sang Katie Morag and Liam as they came through Grannie’s back door. ‘Here’s your present!’

  ‘Chocolates!’ Grannie smiled. But she was just being nice because Grannie Island doesn’t like chocolates very much. ‘Er, well, no,’ mumbled Katie Morag. ‘Open the box,’ demanded Liam, desperate to see his little car.

  When she did, Grannie gave a big smile. ‘What a dear wee little car! Thanks! Can you show me how it works, Liam?’ Liam was down on the floor in seconds, as you can imagine. ‘And Katie Morag – a little pony! Thank you! That reminds me, I have been thinking of getting a real pony. What do you think?’

  It was Katie Morag’s turn to smile a really big smile. ‘I think that is a WONDERFUL idea!’

  ‘I’m not much of a one for sweeties,’ said Grannie, unwinding the reins off the pony, ‘but I do love a piece of liquorice now and again.’

  By the time Mr and Mrs McColl and the baby got to Grannie’s everyone was in high spirits and they didn’t mind at all that all the sweeties had obviously been eaten already.

  Katie Morag secretly vowed that from then on she would get two liquorice laces every Saturday for Grannie out of her own sweetie money. She told Liam the secret. He agreed.

  Liam always agrees with his big sister when he knows she is on to a good thing.

  The Pony

  and the Hamster

  The day Grannie Island’s pony came to the island everyone was down at the pier to see it arrive. Katie Morag was right at the front, c
raning her neck, waiting for the boat to appear round the headland.

  ‘Here she comes!’ shouted Katie Morag. The captain of the Lady of the Isles let out a blast from the ship’s hooter in reply. Everyone cheered.

  Katie Morag’s friend Agnes was expecting something special off the boat, too. It was her birthday present. It was a hamster.

  ‘In a golden cage and it will be mine, all mine!’ Agnes crowed.

  Katie Morag could not show off in the same kind of way, for it wasn’t really her pony, but she was equally excited.

  ‘I’ll ride the pony, won’t I?’ Katie Morag loudly reminded her grandmother. Agnes couldn’t have a ride on a hamster, that was for sure. ‘I bet the pony is shiny black all over with the longest mane and tail ever!’ Katie Morag boasted, as the boat was tied up. ‘I’ll call her Beauty and I’ll ride over to you at High Farm, Agnes!’

  ‘He is called Eriska,’ said Grannie Island, quietly, ‘and he is mottled grey and white. I think he will need a lot of brushing. He has been neglected.’

  Katie Morag tried not to show her disappointment. She wondered what ‘neglected’ meant.

  A high crane swung over with a great wooden box hanging from a large hook. Inside the box, its head sticking out, was the pony. It looked terrified at being so high up in the air. The whites of its eyes were showing and its nostrils were flaring. Over and above the screeching of the boat’s winch and the hubbub of the islanders’ excitement, Katie Morag could hear the pony’s hooves kicking the sides of the box. ‘Well! I don’t think you will be riding that pony for a long time, Katie Morag,’ said Mrs Bayview, who was a miserable kind of a person.

  ‘I will! Tomorrow!’ Katie Morag muttered to herself, annoyed. ‘He’s only frightened at being so high in the sky,’ she replied out loud, but politely, to Mrs Bayview.

  Katie Morag stood far back whilst Grannie Island, Mr and Mrs McColl, Neilly Beag and the ferryman pulled and pushed the pony onto Grannie Island’s trailer. Several bad words were spoken.

  The McColl family followed Grannie’s tractor and trailer in their Land Rover. Katie Morag sat sadly in the back; she had thought she would be riding over on the back of Eriska.

  Getting the pony out of the trailer was easier than expected. Pleased to be on dry land, he let Grannie Island lead him to the stable where a bucket of bran mash was waiting. He gave a happy sort of snort but there was still a little bit of the whites of his eyes showing. ‘Can’t I ride him now?’ asked Katie Morag, hopefully.

  ‘Not yet,’ answered Mr McColl. ‘Eriska was not treated well in his previous home. He is wary of humans. But you can help to settle him; that way he’ll get to know you.’

  So every day Katie Morag went over to Grannie’s and helped with the chores, hoping that that day would be the day she could climb on Eriska’s back. She forgot all about Agnes and certainly did not want her around. There was much to do. The stable had to be swept and hosed, and, as it was early spring, fresh hay put in the rack. Katie Morag dug up carrots, filled the trough with water and mixed the bran mash in Eriska’s bucket. Soon he was calm enough to stand whilst Grannie Island and Katie Morag brushed him all over. That was when he got an apple, which he loved. Eriska also loved Polo mints.

  He was allowed one if he came across the field when he was called. Soon he was racing across whenever he saw Katie Morag at the gate. Katie Morag loved the feel of Eriska’s muzzle delicately taking the mint from her outstretched hand.

  ‘I think he likes you,’ Grannie Island would smile.

  ‘So can I have a ride today?’ Katie Morag would ask.

  After asking the same question every day for a whole week and always being told ‘not yet’, she soon got bored and didn’t bother to go to Grannie’s any more. A pony was an awful lot of hard work.

  She went over to High Farm instead and played with Agnes and Hammie, who was a very friendly, if grubby, hamster. Katie Morag forgot all about Eriska. Until the dreadful day she found Agnes crying sore in her bedroom. Her mother had told her that the hamster was going back on the next boat to the pet shop on the mainland. ‘Why?’ worried Katie Morag, comforting her friend.

  ‘Because she hasn’t cleaned out its cage for a week,’ said Mrs McMaster, sternly. ‘And I’m the one who feeds it and IT IS NOT MY HAMSTER!’

  Being a farmer’s wife, Mrs McMaster had umpteen other animals and birds to look after. She was not in a good mood. She slammed out of the door shouting, ‘Neglect, that is what it is, neglect. You are not responsible enough to have any pets!’

  Hearing these harsh words, Katie Morag suddenly remembered Eriska. She took to her heels and ran all the way over to Grannie’s as fast as she could. The stable was empty. It needed a clean. Katie Morag set to with brush and hose. She rattled through all the other chores. She polished Eriska’s saddle like never before.

  Eriska was in his field. He lifted his head when he saw her come to the gate but then went on eating the grass. No matter how she called and waved Polo mints at him he took no notice.

  It was Katie Morag’s turn to start blubbing. She slumped down in a heap, stuffing all the Polo mints into her mouth and didn’t hear Grannie Island coming across the yard, Eriska’s saddle over her arm.

  ‘I think he thought you were not coming back,’ said Grannie, gently. ‘But look, he’s coming over now.’

  Eriska came slowly over to Katie Morag and put his head down for her to scratch his favourite itchy bit behind his left ear and didn’t mind there being no Polo mints left. ‘Now I know he really likes you,’ smiled Grannie Island. And then she said, ‘I think it is time for your first ride, Katie Morag!’

  How wonderful to be so high and to feel Eriska’s movements beneath her! Katie Morag did not mind Grannie Island leading with the rein. They went all round the big field. It was a beginning ride and it was FANTASTIC!

  ‘You sit very well,’ praised Grannie Island. ‘Next time, you will take the reins!’

  ‘And then can I go over to Agnes’s and can she have a ride? I’m going to help her look after Hammie. Can she help look after Eriska?’

  ‘That sounds a very good idea,’ said Grannie Island. ‘But now it is time for tea. We’ll give Eriska his bucket of mash first.’

  And she lifted Katie Morag off Eriska and gave her a big hug.

  The Camping

  Holiday

  Every day of the summer holidays Katie Morag rode over on Eriska to play with her friend Agnes at High Farm.

  Agnes and her family, however, had to go to the mainland for a few days. They asked Katie Morag to feed Hammie, Agnes’s hamster. Just as before, she would ride over on Eriska. It would be no bother.

  But when the Big Boy Cousins arrived on the island for their camping holiday the very day Agnes left, things got complicated. Katie Morag wanted to go camping, too.

  The big decision was where to pitch the tent. ‘Away from Grannie’s,’ whispered Hector, the biggest Boy Cousin, who was at secondary school. ‘We’ll get chores to do, otherwise.’

  ‘Not at Castle McColl. It’s too scary,’ shuddered Murdo Iain, one of the twins.

  ‘We can’t be too far away from High Farm,’ remembered Katie Morag and she told them why. The Big Boy Cousins all sighed but they pored over the Isle of Struay map searching for the best spot.

  ‘Look!’ pointed Archie, who was good at map reading. ‘Heading north-west from High Farm and past Heron Wood there is a bay called Pig’s Paradise. It will be perfect!’

  Grannie agreed. ‘Yes, that is a good place to camp. Just remember the tides; but Katie Morag knows all about that.’ She said they could load the camping gear onto Eriska. She packed peanut butter and jam sandwiches to give them strength for the long hike over to the other side of the island.

  Pig’s Paradise was perfect. Soft white sand fringed the beach. Turquoise blue water stretched out to a small island covered in sea pinks with a cave hidden in its cliffs. There was not a house in sight. The cousins could shriek and yell to their hearts’ content.

&
nbsp; Soon the tent was up and driftwood had been collected for the barbecue.

  After supper the cousins built an enormous sandcastle at the edge of the sea. Water soon filled the moat. And then it was time to snuggle into their sleeping bags. Everyone slept soundly.

  Next morning the sandcastle and its moat had disappeared. ‘It was the tide,’ explained Katie Morag, who knew about things the Big Boy Cousins did not, they being from a big city. ‘At one time in the day the tide brings the sea closer to the land; half a day later the tide takes the sea further away.’

  But the Big Boy Cousins were not listening. They were planning an expedition to the island.

  ‘I have to go to High Farm to feed Hammie,’ remembered Katie Morag, reluctantly. Jamie said he would keep her company.

  ‘Then we can ride over together. Bareback!’ she replied, cheering up.

  ‘Like wild Highlanders!’ whooped Jamie, picking up crow feathers.

  They stuck the black feathers in their hair and painted charcoal patterns on their faces using the cold ash from last night’s fire. As they set off on Eriska they haloo-ed to the others, who were already starting to swim to the island. ‘Have the supper ready for the Struay Chiefs!’ they shouted and galloped off.