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There was in Liddesdale (in Morven) a Farmer who suffered great loss
within the space of one year. In the first place, his wife and children
died, and shortly after their death the Ploughman left him. The
hiring-markets were then over, and there was no way of getting another
ploughman in place of the one that left. When spring came his neighbours
began ploughing; but he had not a man to hold the plough, and he knew
not what he should do. The time was passing, and he was therefore losing
patience. At last he said to himself, in a fit of passion, that he would
engage the first man that came his way, whoever he should be.
Shortly after that a man came to the house. The Farmer met him at the
door, and asked him whither was he going, or what was he seeking? He
answered that he was a ploughman, and that he wanted an engagement. "I
want a ploughman, and if we agree about the wages, I will engage thee.
What dost thou ask from this day to the day when the crop will be
gathered in?" "Only as much of the corn when it shall be dry as I can
carry with me in one burden-withe." "Thou shalt get that," said the
Farmer, and they agreed.
Next morning the Farmer went out with the Ploughman, and showed him the
fields which he had to plough. Before they returned, the Ploughman went
to the wood, and having cut three stakes, came back with them, and
placed one of them at the head of each one of the fields. After he had
done that he said to the Farmer, "I will do the work now alone, and the
ploughing need no longer give thee anxiety."
Having said this, he went home and remained idle all that day. The next
day came, but he remained idle as on the day before. After he had spent
a good while in that manner, the Farmer said to him that it was time for
him to begin work now, because the spring was passing away, and the
neighbours had half their work finished. He replied, "Oh, our land is
not ready yet." "How dost thou think that?" "Oh, I know it by the
stakes."
If the delay of the Ploughman made the Farmer wonder, this answer made
him wonder more. He resolved that he would keep his eye on him, and see
what he was doing.
The Farmer rose early next morning, and saw the Ploughman going to the
first field. When he reached the field, he pulled the stake at its end
out of the ground, and put it to his nose. He shook his head and put the
stake back in the ground. He then left the first field and went to the
rest. He tried the stakes, shook his head, and returned home. In the
dusk he went out the second time to the fields, tried the stakes, shook
his head, and after putting them again in the ground, went home. Next
morning he went out to the fields the third time. When he reached the
first stake he pulled it out of the ground and put it to his nose as he
did on the foregoing days. But no sooner had he done that than he threw
the stake from him, and stretched away for the houses with all his
might.
He got the horses, the withes, and the plough, and when he reached the
end of the first field with them, he thrust the plough into the ground,
and cried:
"My horses and my leather-traces, and mettlesome lads,
The earth is coming up!"
He then began ploughing, kept at it all day at a terrible rate, and
before the sun went down that night there was not a palm-breadth of the
three fields which he had not ploughed, sowed, and harrowed. When the
Farmer saw this he was exceedingly well pleased, for he had his work
finished as soon as his neighbours.
The Ploughman was quick and ready to do everything that he was told, and
so he and the Farmer agreed well until the harvest came. But on a
certain day when the reaping was over, the Farmer said to him that he
thought the corn was dry enough for putting in. The Ploughman tried a
sheaf or two, and answered that it was not dry yet. But shortly after
that day he said that it was now ready. "If it is," said the Farmer, "we
better begin putting it in." "We will not until I get my share out of it
first," said the Ploughman. He then went off to the wood, and in a short
time returned, having in his hand a withe scraped and twisted. He
stretched the withe on the field, and began to put the corn in it. He
continued putting sheaf after sheaf in the withe until he had taken
almost all the sheaves that were on the field. The Farmer asked of him
what he meant? "Thou didst promise me as wages as much corn as I could
carry with me in one burden-withe, and here I have it now," said the
Ploughman, as he was shutting the withe.
The Farmer saw that he would be ruined by the Ploughman, and therefore
said:
"'Twas in the Mart I sowed,
'Twas in the Mart I baked,
'Twas in the Mart I harrowed.
Thou Who hast ordained the three Marts,
Let not my share go in one burden-withe."
Instantly the withe broke, and it made a loud report, which echo
answered from every rock far and near. Then the corn spread over the
field, and the Ploughman went away in a white mist in the skies, and was
seen no more.