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KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! "Where
is Mr. McGee?" asked Andy. The six children stood at the door. "Nobody’s
answering."
"That’s not like Mr. McGee.
He’s always here waiting for us on ‘Story Night’," Gavin said.
Ginger, Mungo’s cat, came
walking around from the back of the house. "Oh look! There’s Ginger. Maybe
Mr. McGee’s in the back garden," Gregor said. They ran behind the house.
He wasn’t in his flower garden and he wasn’t in his vegetable garden.
"Where is he?" asked wee
Hamish, worried about his friend.
The bairns went back to the
front door and sat down on the steps. Ginger came walking up and sat next
to them. Morag petted her soft fur. It was beginning to get dark and the
young bairns were starting to worry. Just then, Mungo came down the lane.
"Mr. McGee!" shouted Andy and ran to meet him. The others followed.
"Where were you?" asked wee
Fiona.
"You won’t believe me if I
tell you," he laughed. "Come bairns, lets go in the house. I’ll fetch you
some snacks. I’m rather hungry myself." When they were inside, even
Ginger, Mungo went into the kitchen and started making some food. The
bairns were busy carrying dishes and making tea. "All right then, lads and
lassies. I’ll tell you why I am late. Help yourself to some shortbread and
ham sandwiches. There’s also some cheese and crackers for you too."
"Tell us the story," Mr.
McGee," said Gregor.
"About three hours ago, I
got a phone call from the widow, Mrs. Sinclair. She’s getting up there in
age and not able to do a lot of things. She said that she needed some help
carrying some heavy boxes into the house. I thought I’d only be gone a wee
while, so I let Ginger out and walked up to her. When I got there, she had
twenty huge boxes sitting in her front garden. I asked her what was in
them. She wouldn’t answer. All of them were wooden crates and they were
large. I couldn’t imagine what was in them. I asked her where she wanted
me to put them. She told me to put them in her back bedroom," Mungo said.
"Did the boxes have writing
on the outside?" Gavin asked.
"That’s a good question,"
Morag said, smiling at Gavin.
"There was some writing.
They each had the words ‘HANDLE WITH CARE’ on them," Mungo explained.
"I tried to pick one of the
boxes up. Och, they were heavy. It took all of my strength to lift them
up. Carrying them into her back bedroom was difficult. Not only were they
heavy, but I had to be careful with them. I had moved about half of them
through and was picking up the next box when I dropped it. Part of the box
broke," Mungo said.
"What was in it? Did you
peek inside?" Morag asked.
"Since it was broken, I was
able to have a wee peek inside. I nearly screamed when I saw what was in
there!" Mungo said.
"What was it, Mr. McGee? A
monster? Did Mrs. Sinclair have boxes of monsters?" wee Fiona asked.
"Wee Fiona, there’s no such
thing as monsters," Gavin said to his sister. "Is there?" he asked Mungo.
"I thought it was a
monster. There were two huge eyes staring at me. I fell backwards. That’s
how afraid I was. I stood up and looked in the box again. After all, I
didn’t hear any noises. It seemed to be a statue of some odd looking
animal. It turns out that Mrs. Sinclair’s son, Robert, went to the Orkney
Islands on some sort of expedition and had sent all these statues and
objects back to his mum’s house to be stored until he got back. Say,
bairns, would you like to go to Mrs. Sinclair’s house with me and see it?
I took it out of the box and it is in her living room now," Mungo said.
"I’d love to see it," said
Morag.
"We all would," Gregor
added.
"Let’s go then. Finish up
your snacks and then we’ll pop in on Mrs. Sinclair. She won’t mind," Mungo
said.
They headed up the lane to
her house. Ginger followed. KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! Mrs. Sinclair answered
the door. "We came to see your ugly statue," wee Hamish said.
Mungo, somewhat
embarrassed, explained, "He means the statue in your living room. I told
them it had ugly eyes. Sorry, Mrs. Sinclair."
"That’s quite all right.
Come in bairns," she said, ushering them into the house.
"That is an ugly statue,"
Gregor said. "Look at its face."
"What is it?" Andy asked.
"My son, Robert, was on an
archeological expedition in the Orkney Islands. Do you know where that
is?" she asked.
"What’s archelocal?" asked
wee Fiona.
"It means he was digging
for mummies," Gavin said.
"No, no, no. He wasn’t
digging for mummies. He was digging in some old ruins that they’d
uncovered in the islands. Orkney is north of Scotland. It seems these
crates are filled with Viking treasures," Mrs. Sinclair explained.
"Vikings? They wear hats
with horns," Morag said.
"This statue was found in
an excavation, along with gold jewelry, coins, wooden oars, bowls, spoons
and drinking cups. Robert is taking it all to a museum, but wanted to keep
it well hidden until he gets back," Mrs. Sinclair said.
"Why?" asked Gregor. "Are
there robbers looking for it?"
"Robbers?" Andy said.
"Bairns, there are a few
people who would like to get their hands on this ancient treasure, but its
safe here. There won’t be any robbers, so don’t worry. Would you like a
drink of lemonade?" she said, trying to distract them.
"Yes," they all cried. She
went into the kitchen to pour their drinks.
"Mr. McGee, tell us more
about Vikings. I didn’t know there were any in Scotland," Gavin said.
"There were many Vikings in
Scotland. There was a great Viking battle called the Battle of Largs. It
happened in the year 1263, right here in Scotland. The Vikings said that
they owned parts of the Western Isles and Kintyre because there was a
treaty between Edgar, King of Scots and Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway in
1098," Mungo said.
"Magnet Barefoot? That’s a
funny name," giggled Wee Hamish.
"Magnus Barefoot. Vikings
had unusual names. Some were called Red Beard, others Long Nose. It helped
tell them apart. As time went on," Mungo said, continuing, "the people
living in that area, led by King Alexander III, offered to buy Kintyre and
the Isles back from the Vikings. Haakon, who was now the king of Norway,
said no and took a fleet of ships to fight the Scottish people. They had
about 200 ships," Mungo said.
"That’s a lot of ships. How
many did the Scottish people have?" Gregor asked.
"I’m not sure, but 200 is a
lot. They came to the Isles and then went on to other parts of Scotland.
Haakon and his men actually dragged fifty of their ships across the land
at Tarbet, while the rest of the ships sailed on to fight King Alexander.
They anchored their ships at a place called Largs," Mungo told them.
"That means they had 150
ships," said Morag, proud to have figured out how many.
"Where did the 50 ships
go?" asked Gavin.
"They were going to sneak
up another way. On the night of September 30, 1263, a huge storm hit
western Scotland. It tossed the ships about and sank many of them. The
battle began that day, so you can imagine how hard it was to fight in a
gale. The battle lasted for 4 long days. When the storm passed on the 5th
of October, the Vikings sailed back to the Isles. The men who lived on the
Isles, Scottish men, attacked the Vikings and they fled. King Haakon went
to Orkney and he died there. In 1266, a treaty called the Treaty of Perth,
gave the Isles and Kintyre back to Scotland. So, now you know how the
Vikings ended up in the Orkney Islands," Mungo said.
"So all the things in these
crates belonged to King Haakon?" asked Gavin.
"Yes. Robert and his men
found them and they are going to send them to a museum, like Mrs. Sinclair
told you," Mungo said.
"Wow, that’s cool," said
Gregor. "Can we see some more?"
Mrs. Sinclair came back
with the lemonade and some biscuits. She told the bairns that they
couldn’t see anything but the statue with ugly eyes, until it was safe in
the museum. They drank their lemonade and then went back to Mungo’s house.
While they were waiting for
their parents to come and pick them up, the bairns talked about treasure
and Vikings. Gregor and Andy pretended to be Vikings having a sword fight.
Wee Hamish and wee Fiona chased Ginger around the back garden. Morag and
Gavin argued about Viking ships. "They do too have striped sails," Morag
said.
"No, they don’t," Gavin
snarled.
Mungo stopped the fighting.
"Yes, Gavin, sorry to say, but they did have red and white striped sails
on their long boats. Morag was right."
Morag stuck her tongue out
at Gavin. "So," he said to her.
The parents came to pick up
the bairns. After they’d left, Mungo took Ginger and went back to Mrs.
Sinclair’s house to help her with more boxes. Pictures of Viking battles
floated through all their heads that night as they slept. They’d not soon
forget the Battle of Largs. |
