Thistle and Thyme Read Online Free PDF

someone’s gone over the cliff!” said the first man. “Do you not see?”
    The other one peered through the gloaming. “I see a bit of somewhat,” said he. “Happen ’tis a bird.”
    â€œNo bird is so big,” said the first fisherman, and he laid his hand on the tiller of the boat.
    â€œYou’ll not be going in! The boat’ll break up on the rocks!” cried his companion.
    â€œOch, we’ll not break up. Could I go home and eat my supper in peace thinking that some poor body might be lying out here and him hurt or dying?” And he took the boat in.
    It came in safe, and they drew it above the waves. Up the cliff the two of them climbed and there they found a young lass lying on a shelf of rock. They got her down and laid her in the boat, and off they sailed for home.
    When they got there, they gave her over to the women to nurse and tend. They found that she was not so much hurt as dazed and daft. But after two days she found her wits and looked up at them.
    â€œWhere is my babe?” she cried then. “Fetch my bairn to me!”
    At that, the women drew back and looked at one another, not knowing what to say. For they surely had no bairn to give her!
    At last one old cailleach went over to her and said, “Poor lass. Call upon your Creator for strength! There was no bairn with you upon the cliff. Happen he fell from your arms to the sea.”
    â€œThat he did not!” she cried impatiently. “I wrapped him warm and laid him safe on the path while I went to search for water for him to drink. I did not have him with me when I fell. I must go find him!”
    But they would not let her go, for she was still too weak from her fall o’er the cliff. They told her the men would go by the path and fetch the bairn to her. So the men went, and they walked the path from one end to the other, but never a trace of the bairn did they find. They searched the whole of the livelong day, and at night they came back and told her. They tried to comfort her as well as they could. He’d surely been found, they said, by a passer-by, and he’d be safe and sound in some good soul’s house. They’d ask around. And so they did. But nobody had seen the child at all.
    She bided her time till her strength came back. Then she thanked them kindly for all they’d done and said she’d be going now to find her bairn. He was all she had in the world, for his father was dead.
    The fisherfolk would have had her remain with them. They’d long given the child up for dead, and they’d learned to love her well.
    â€œI’ll come back and bide with you when I have my bairn again,” said she. “But until then, farewell.”
    She wandered about from croft to croft and from village to village, but no one had seen him nor even so much as heard of anyone finding such a bairn. At last in her wandering she came to a place where some gypsies had made their camp. “Have you seen my bairn?” she asked. For she knew they traveled far and wide and she hoped that they might know where he was. But they could tell her nothing except that all the bairns they had were their own. She was so forlorn and weary that they felt pity for her. They took her in and bathed her tired feet and fed her from their own pot.
    When they had heard her story, they said she must bide with them. At the end of the week they’d be journeying north to meet others of their clan. They had an ancient grandmother there who had all the wisdom in the world. Perhaps she’d be able to help.
    So she stayed with the gypsies and traveled northward with them. When they got there, they took her to the ancient grandmother and asked her to help the lass.
    â€œSit thee down beside me,” the old crone said, “and let me take thy hand.” So the grieving lass sat down beside her and there the two of them stayed, side by side and hand in hand.
    The hours went by and night