The King and the Lamp

by Duncan Williamson

  But, to make a long story short, it came time when somebody had to go to the village for messages. By this time Nellie had begun to grow, and she was a good-sized, half-grown goat. The father called all his sons together that night after the hard day’s work was finished.

  He said, ‘Boys, we’re kind of short of food. And I need tobacco and your mother needs some things from the village. Tomorrow I want one of you to go to the village and bring back some messages, whatever your mother needs.’

  And old Maggie said, ‘Aye, and you’ll take wee Nellie with you to the village for a walk because she’s been tied up here all day at home with me while you’ve been away. I’ve made a belt for her and a nice collar – you’ll take her with you for a walk to the town! And upon my soul, be good to her! Don’t walk her feet on the hard road, keep her on the grass and stop along the way and give her a good drink. Treat her like you would treat your own mother!’

  So Willie said, ‘Mother, I wouldn’t hurt your wee goat, I know you love it, though I don’t like it!’ Now the goat hated these boys – jealous of them! It didn’t like them at all. The next morning came.

  Willie got up, got his breakfast, got money from his mother and he got a bag. He went into the shed, took the goat by the rope and led the goat into the village. He walked it on the grass and he stopped along the way, he gave it a drink of water and he fed it and he took his time with it, bought it apples from the shop and he treated it like a queen, all the way to the village and all the way back! After he came home, before he even took the messages into his mother, he took the goat into the shed, tied it up, made it a bed of soft straw, got a nice pail of water and put it down beside the goat. Then he went in for his supper, gave his mother his messages and his father his tobacco. They sat and talked for a while, they asked him about the village and he said that everything was okay there. And Willie went away upstairs to his bed. So the old mother and father sat and talked for a wee while.

  ‘Johnnie,’ she says, ‘I think you should go and bring wee Nellie in for a while. I’m wearying to see her, I haven’t seen her all day. And put her down by the fire where I can see her!’ The boys were upstairs in their beds. It was about twelve o’clock at night and the old man was sitting smoking his pipe at the fire and old Maggie was sitting in her chair.

  ‘Well, I will go out and bring wee Nellie in,’ he said, ‘she must be feeling kind o’ cold out there! I’ll bring her in for a wee heat.’ So out he went and brought in the goat. They had a sheepskin rug at the front of the fire. He put the goat at the front of the fire.

  She said, ‘How are you feeling the night, Nellie?’

  ‘Oh woman, dinnae speak to me,’ she said, ‘dinnae speak to me!’

  ‘What’s wrong with you?’

  ‘Oh-oh,’ she says, ‘what’s wrong wi me? You’ve nae idea what’s wrong wi me – that laddie o’ yours—’

  ‘What’s wrong with that laddie,’ she says, ‘what did he do?’

  ‘Do to me?’ she said. ‘Oh, you’ve no idea what he’s done to me – he kicked me and he battered me and I never had a bite today – and he pulled me on the rope as hard as he could and my poor feet are that sore I can hardly stand up! And when he got to the village he tied me up to a wall where I couldn’t get a bite and he put wee weans on my back for pennies, and gave them a hurl. And my poor back’s that sore I can’t even move!’

  The old man said, ‘Nellie, are you telling the truth?’

  The goat said, ‘I’m telling the God’s honest truth, why would I tell you a lie, to you people who are so good to me? That’s what your son has done to me, that laddie! That son you’ve got – he’s a beast, he’s an animal!’

  ‘Well,’ the old man said, ‘it’ll never happen again in this house. Tomorrow morning, when he comes down that stair, I’m going to make him so that he’ll never again be cruel to his mother’s wee pet!’

  True to his word, the old man got up the first thing in the morning, and before he got breakfast – never even tied his boots – when his son came down the stair (Willie always came down first because he was the oldest one), he took a walking stick from behind the door and gave Willie the biggest beating he ever had in his life. He laid into him for an hour.

  ‘Now,’ he said, ‘go on your way and never show your face back here about this house as long as you live! Don’t ever come back! You cruel boy who was cruel to your mother’s wee pet – the only thing she has to keep her in company! Willie was sent on his way never to be seen again.

  So the two brothers were kind of sad at losing their brother because they liked to be together. Now, there was more animosity towards the goat – they hated the goat worse for this! But they didn’t know what happened because their mother and father never told them. They worked hard with their father just the same and a month passed by and it was once again time to go to the shop for their messages.

  Now it was Jack’s turn, the next brother. And he did the same thing. But if Willie was good to the goat, Jack was ten times better. He half-carried it to the town and half-carried it back! He bought cookies and he bought scones for it and he fed it on flowers along the way and gave it a drink of water, and did everything he could possibly do for the goat – but no, it was no good. He gave his mother the messages, gave his father his tobacco, sat and had his supper and went upstairs to bed.

  She said, ‘Johnnie, I don’t know – that laddie, he might have been bad to that wee goat today – you’d better go and bring her in and see what she’s got to say the night!’

  Old Jock goes out for the goat, brings it in, puts it down by the fire. The goat, she’s stretched out.

  ‘How are you feeling the night, Nellie?’

  ‘O-oh,’ she says, ‘don’t speak to me, woman, I can’t talk, I can’t talk to you – I’m too sore. That laddie o’ yours took revenge on me and he kicked me the whole way to the town and he kicked me the whole way back. I’m so sick I can’t even move, so dinnae speak nae mair tae me. I just want to lie doon. And please! Don’t put me back in that shed the night – can you let me lie by the fire?’

  The old man said, ‘God bless us, that’s terrible! You poor wee beast! But wait, upon my soul, he’s no getting off with it – tomorrow morning when he comes down that stair – I’m going to make him so that he’ll never treat you badly again, Nellie! Don’t worry, you’ll no need to worry about him.’

  So the next morning, true to his word, the old man – before he even got breakfast – when Jack came down the stair he laid into Jack with the walking stick. And if he gave Willie a beating he gave Jack a bigger beating. And he said, ‘Look, you follow your brother and never show your face about my house as long as you live! You cruel laddie, what you did to your mother’s wee beast!’ So Jack was sent on his way, the same as his brother.

  Now there were only the father and Tommy left. Tommy was kind of fed up and he hated the goat worse by this time because he knew there was something wrong. He said, ‘My brothers couldn’t be bad to that goat. My brothers never hurt anybody, and how did they know anyway – the goat can’t speak – the goat can’t tell them anything.’ This is what Tommy said to himself, ‘Well, I’ll tell you one thing, if it comes my chance to take it to the town, I’m not going to be bad to it! I don’t want to leave my father and mother and I have no place to go.’ And he worried about this, you see.

  But another month passed by and it came to Tommy’s turn, and the same thing happened to him. If the two brothers were good to the goat, Tommy was ten times better. He treated it even more like a queen! He picked wee soft flowers and put them on the grass and patted wee Nellie. ‘Now you be a good wee goat and come with me, and I’ll look after you, and don’t worry,’ said Tommy. He did all the things he could for the goat on the way to the village and on the way back, bought it sweeties and he fed it sweeties. He came back, put her in the shed, filled a nice pail of water and made a nice wee bed for her. ‘Lie down there and keep yourself warm, wee Nellie,’ he said. He went in, had his supper and went to
his bed.

  The old mother and father, old Johnnie and old Maggie, were sitting at the fireside. She said, ‘Johnnie, I wonder how wee Nellie’s getting on, I’d like to see her before I go to bed,’ because this old woman loved the goat from her heart!

  ‘Oh well, I’ll bring her in for a wee while,’ he said, ‘it’s getting kind o’ cold, it’s getting near the winter-time now and probably she’d be better to sleep by the fire tonight.’

  He brought the goat in and put it down by the fire. And the goat just lay down, stretched its legs out – couldn’t move.

  And old Maggie said, ‘How are you feeling the night, wee Nellie?’

  ‘O-o-oh, dear-dear woman,’ she said, ‘I can’t speak to you, I can’t speak! Don’t ask me questions – I’m just about finished – I don’t think I’ll see the night out, I think I’m finished for good!’

  ‘What’s wrong with you?’

  ‘Oh, that laddie of yours,’ she said, ‘he killed me, he finally finished me. What his two brothers didn’t do, he finally did it. I’m just about finished, I’ll never see daylight, I’ll never see the morning!’

  And the old woman started to greet. And when the old woman started to greet, the old man felt so sad. ‘I’m no waiting till morning,’ he said, ‘I’m going to get him right now!’ So he goes up the stair and pulls young Thomas out of bed and gives him the biggest beating he ever got in his life and sends him – in the darkness – off! Never to show his face again.

  The goat heard this and the goat said to itself ‘Haa! That’s the last of them. Thank God, that’s the last of them gone. Now it’s just me and old Johnnie and Maggie and I’ll enjoy my life here with them two.’ It sprung up to its feet and sat right at the front of the fire. It sat and it joked and it told cracks and stories to the old man and the old woman till the old man and woman felt sleepy.

  And old Maggie says, ‘Nellie, my doll, I’ll have to go to bed more the night. I’ve enjoyed this night, this is the best night that ever I had in my life! Will you be all right Nellie?’

  ‘A-aye,’ she said, ‘old woman, I’ll be all right.’

  ‘How are you feeling, is your body still sore?’

  ‘Ach, I’m no so bad noo,’ she said, ‘since I had a wee crack to youse and I’m feeling a wee bit better, I’ll probably be all right by the morning.’

  So the old man and the old woman kissed the goat, cuddled it and bade it ‘good night’. ‘You’ll stay by the fire the night, Nellie?’

  ‘I’ll stay by the fire, old wife,’ she said, ‘and I’ll be all right.’

  So the old man and woman went away to bed. And she said, ‘Johnnie, I can never thank you, never thank you enough for what you’ve done for me getting me that wee goat. I love my wee goat!’

  ‘Old wife,’ he said, ‘look, I love you. And anybody who’d be bad to your wee goat, I wouldn’t have any time for them – even my own sons. But I’ll tell you something, I’m going to miss the laddies. But they’ll have to learn to go their own way. If they’d been good to your wee goat, they wouldn’t have got what they got. And, it’s me and you and Nellie from now on. I’ll manage by cutting sticks, I’ll manage myself to get as much as will keep me and you alive. As long as you’ve got wee Nellie to keep you in company.’ So, the goat was happy. The old man was happy, and the old woman was happy, but they missed the laddies.

  But the old man was true to his word, he worked hard and he worked away for a month. And the goat was in with old Maggie every day in the week and she and the goat spent a fantastic time! She loved the goat so much she just couldn’t bear to have it out of her sight. But things began to get short, they had no food and it came the time that somebody had to go to the village.

  And the old man said, ‘Well, you can’t go, old Maggie. I’ll go to the village and I’ll take wee Nellie with me! I’ll no be bad to her. Whatever’s going in the town, she gets half of it, everything I buy she gets half.’

  So, true to his word, the next morning the old man got up bright and early, and before he got breakfast he went out and brought the goat in. ‘Come on now, Nellie, sit by the fire and have a wee heat,’ he said, ‘and have a wee crack to the old wife there because me and you are going to the town today, and I’ll get you something bonnie. What do you like?’

  ‘Oh well,’ she said, ‘I’m fond of sweeties and I like pancakes and I like scones and anything that’s kind of sweet.’

  ‘I’ll get you plenty of sweet things, Nellie, don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I’m not like these laddies, I’ll no be bad to you.’ So he said to the old woman, ‘Give me some extra money to get something for Nellie. She and I will go to town.’

  So the old man got Nellie by the rope and a bag on his back, and away he went. And if the three boys were good to Nellie, the old man was ten times better. He treated her like a baby, all the way to the town and on the way back he treated her the same! When he came back, he put her into the shed – before he even had a bite to eat himself – made a nice wee bed of straw for her, got her a nice pail of clean water. And he said, ‘Nellie, you lie down there and keep yourself warm. When I get a bite to eat I’ll bring you in to the fire to see the old wife.’ And the goat lay down. Now the goat never said anything. It wasn’t very happy.

  So he came in, he gave his old wife all the messages, she made a nice supper for the old man and he lay back, lighted his pipe, untied his boots. And she said, ‘Johnnie, before you take your boots off, would you bring wee Nellie in?’

  ‘Aye,’ he said, ‘I’ll go and get Nellie now! She’ll tell you how good I was to her. I’m no like your sons, I’m no bad-hearted.’ He goes, carries in the goat, and puts it down in the front of the fire.

  ‘Well, Nellie,’ old Maggie said, ‘how are you feeling the night?’

  ‘Oh woman, don’t speak to me, how am I feeling – you shouldn’t ask these things of me!’ she said. ‘How could you manage to stay all these years with that animal of a man you’ve got? That’s a beast, that’s worse than every son you ever had. The laddies were bad, but God bless us, that man was worse!’ And the old man was sitting at the fire. ‘He kicked me and he battered me and he blamed me for his sons. When he got me away from your house a wee bit, he put all his ill will on me because his sons weren’t there to help him, and he nearly killed me dead! And I’m no able to move. I cannae talk to you – let me lie doon by your fire!’

  ‘Ah,’ said the old man, ‘so that’s the way it is, is it! Well, Nellie, I brought you to this house for the sake of my old wife to keep her in company, but you ruined my sons’ lives. I never hurt you in any way but I’m going to hurt you now!’ And he caught the goat and he pulled it outside and he got a walking stick. He beat it and he beat it and he beat it, till the goat couldn’t move. ‘Now,’ he said to the goat, ‘get on your way and never show your face back about my house again as long as you live! You unsanctified jeejament animal!’ he said. ‘My poor wee laddies treated you the way I treated you and that’s the thanks we get.’

  So the goat makes off. And the goat goes, travels on and travels on.

  And he went back in, ‘Woman!’

  She said, ‘What did you do to wee Nellie?’

  He says, ‘I did to Nellie what Nellie needed. Woman, that’s an evil beast! All that time when me and you were thinking the world of it … I never hurt it, I never touched it on the way to the village!’ And the old woman believed him, she believed her old man because she knew he was telling the truth. She kent him through and through.

  He said, ‘I treated it like a baby and you heard what it said to me. I bet you a pound to a penny the laddies did the same thing, and I gave my wee sons a beating and sent them off – God knows where they are now – for nothing, over the head of that beast, that animal, that unsanctified goat!’ He said, ‘Nothing good will come out of it!’

  And the old woman said, ‘Johnnie, I believe you, I believe you because there’s no goat could speak anyway – unless it was evil. God knows where my wee laddies are …’ the old wo
man started to greet.

  The old man said, ‘Never mind, maybe we’ll come across your laddies sometime.’

  But we’ll leave the old people now and we’ll go with the goat.

  The goat travels on, it travels on, travels on all night, right through the forest till it comes to the sea. And the heavy waves were lashing against the shore, and it’s looking for a place to sleep. A goat’s a good climber, and it climbs up the face of this cliff and comes to a nice wee cave in the cliff-face. It goes in, it lies down in the cave. And oh, it’s sore, its body is sore with the beating the old man gave it. And its feet are sore with walking so far.

  It’s saying, ‘O-oh-dear-o-dear-o-dear, I’m sore! Ooh my feet, my feet, my body. O-oh dear, what did I do this for? Was I no better back with my old woman, lying among straw and getting petted by the fire? What in the name of God was I thinking about, why have I been so stupid and so foolish?’ And the goat’s talking away to itself and it’s moaning with the pain.

  But unknown to the goat a fox had its den in this cave and it had two wee cubs at the very back, and they were lying among a wee puckle straw that the fox had brought in. Now this mother fox had been away hunting all night for something for the cubs to eat. She had caught a rabbit. And by the time she had got back it was daylight. It was the summer-time and the sun was shining. When she came back to the cave she heard this noise from within.

  ‘O-oh-dear-o-dear-o-dear, I’m sore! O-o-o-oh-o-oh-o-oh me-me, what did I do this for?’

  The vixen was afraid to go in. She said, ‘It must be the devil in there! I can’t go in there, and my two wee babies are going to die with the hunger – I can’t go in to them!’ And she’s sitting greeting with the wee rabbit in front of her, sitting in front of the cave.