Not far from Dalby, Billy Beg and Tom Beg, two humpback cobblers,
lived together on a lonely croft. Billy Beg was sharper and cleverer
than Tom Beg, who was always at his command. One day Billy Beg gave
Tom a staff, and quoth he:
'Tom Beg, go to the mountain and fetch home the white sheep.'
Tom Beg took the staff and went to the mountain, but he could not find
the white sheep. At last, when he was far from home and dusk was coming
on, he began to think that he had best go back. The night was fine,
and stars and a small crescent moon were in the sky. No sound was
to be heard but the curlew's sharp whistle. Tom was hastening home,
and had almost reached Glen Rushen, when a grey mist gathered and he
lost his way. But it was not long before the mist cleared, and Tom
Beg found himself in a green glen such as he had never seen before,
though he thought he knew every glen within five miles of him, for
he was born and reared in the neighbourhood. He was marvelling and
wondering where he could be, when he heard a far-away sound drawing
nearer to him.
'Aw,' said he to himself, 'there's more than myself afoot on the
mountains to-night; I'll have company.'
The sound grew louder. First, it was like the humming of bees,
then like the rushing of Glen Meay waterfall, and last it was like
the marching and the murmur of a crowd. It was the fairy host. Of a
sudden the glen was full of fine horses and of Little People riding
on them, with the lights on their red caps, shining like the stars
above, and making the night as bright as day. There was the blowing
of horns, the waving of flags, the playing of music, and the barking
of many little dogs. Tom Beg thought that he had never seen anything
so splendid as all he saw there. In the midst of the drilling and
dancing and singing one of them spied Tom, and then Tom saw coming
towards him the grandest Little Man he had ever set eyes upon,
dressed in gold and silver, and silk shining like a raven's wing.
'It is a bad time you have chosen to come this way,' said the Little
Man, who was the king.
'Yes; but it is not here that I'm wishing to be though,' said Tom.