The Coming of the Unicorn by Duncan Williamson Read Free Book Online

gathered all the big heap of rags in the corner, John’s bag with his hundred shillings and everything, gave them to the ragman.
    The ragman thanked her very much and away he goes.
    That evening John came back from the forest. First thing, he went to see that his silver shillings were there… but the lot was gone.
    “What have you done, wife, with all that heap of rags that was in the corner of the house?”
    “Oh, John,” she said, “there was a ragman here the day and he gave me a sixpence – I gave him the whole lot.”
    “Oh, dear-dear-dear,” he says, “my beautiful bag of money!”
    “What money?” she says.
    He says, “I got a hundred silver shillings from my uncles and I hid them among the rags!”
    Oh, the wife was heartbroken, you know.
    So, for the next two-three days and a week things got as bad as ever. They were stuck again, nothing doing. John couldn’t get any sale for his sticks. So, the wife coaxed him the best way in the world and made him once again promise he would go to see his three rich uncles once more.
    Back he goes to see his rich uncles. Oh, they make him welcome, poor John! They bring him in, give him the best they had to eat, keep him for the night, talk to him all night, give hima good drink, everything he requires. They asked him how he got on.
    And he turned round and told them what happened.
    They said, “We told you…”
    “But,” he said, “I hid the money in among the rags and my wife gave the rags away to the ragman!”
    “Well, John,” they said, “we’ll have to do something for you again.” So, they searched their pockets between them, and all the money they had was fifty silver shillings. They gave him fifty silver shillings.
    “Now, John,” one says, “remember – hide it where your wife won’t find it!” They bid him farewell.
    True to his word, John goes away back. This time he hides it in a dustbin at the side of the house, the old dustbin. He works away a couple of days, gives his wife a shilling now and a shilling again. Till one day the dustcart came, a man with his horse and cart collecting the ashes. In these days they called at the houses and asked if you had any ashes to lift, and you paid them a penny or two for taking away your ashes and dust.
    “Oh, yes,” she said, “my dustbin’s never been emptied for months! Will you empty it for us, please?”
    So, the dustman came and emptied the ashes into the dustcart and away he goes.
    When John comes back from the forest the first thing he goes to look in his ashbin… it was empty.
    “Wife, wife, wife! What have you done?”
    She says, “What?”
    He says, “Who emptied the ashbin?”
    She said, “The ash cart was here today, the man with his pony and ash cart was here. I gave him the old ashbin to empty.”
    He said, “My silver shillings were in the bin – fifty silver shillings I got from my uncles.”
    “Well,” she said, “they’re gone.”
    “Oh, wife, wife,” he said. And the wife felt very sad, you know, about this. She couldn’t speak. She was just nearly in tears. But anyway, John forgave her.
    He said, “We’ll just try our best. But don’t ask me to go back to my uncles any more for any more money because I’m not going, in no way!”
    “Well, never mind, John,” she says, “we’ll have to try. You’ll just have to work all the harder and see will we manage to keep ourselves alive. But I’m really sorry.”
    “Oh, well, wife, it canna be helped. It was only a mistake.”
    But anyway, time passed by and they managed to survive the best they could. Till one day a carriage pulled up at the door. Who was it but the three rich uncles who had come to pay John a visit!
    John’s wife met them at the door, welcomed them in. She said, “We have nothing to give you to eat. Come in, we’ve nothing to give you to drink. We’re very poor.”
    “Oh, where’s John?”
    “John will be home in a minute.”
    John came home. “I’m sorry, uncles,” he says.
    “But,”