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"Can I come with you,
Grandpa?" wee Thom asked. "I’m big enough to cut the peat too. I can jump
really hard on the shovel and you can turn it over," he smiled.
Grandpa picked the curved
shovel up and looked at his grandson. "Sure, laddie. You can come wi’ me,
but run and ask your mum first," he ordered.
Thom ran into the house.
Grandpa looked up at the smoke billowing out of the chimney. It was an old
crofter’s cottage, white washed, with a thatched heather roof, and glass
windows that sparkled in the sunshine. He could smell the sweet scent of
peat burning in the fireplace. "Your granny must be cooking barley soup,"
he called to Thom as he came running out of the house.
"I can go. Mum said it was
all right. Granny’s fixing a big kettle of soup. She said it would be
ready when we get back. She gave me a handful of buns to take with us,
Grandpa," Thom said.
Grandpa put the buns in his
deep pockets. "Let’s be off then, Thom," he said.
The two walked towards the
moor. Thom ran ahead a few steps most of the time. His legs moved much
quicker than his grandpas. A skylark flew out of its nest in the grasses.
It landed in a short-limbed tree. It began to warble. "Listen to the
birdie, Grandpa," Thom said. "It sounds pretty, doesn’t it?"
"Lovely, Thom. There are
all kinds of birds that live on the moor. Maybe we’ll see some stonechats,
or curlews. I hear there are some big cats out here. I saw one once. It
was black and about your size. I stayed away from it," Grandpa told Thom.
"Grandpa? Big cats? Will
they eat us?" Thom asked, quite afraid.
"No, laddie. Nothing will
come near us. Most animals are frightened of people. Now, here we are.
Let’s get those peat cut."
Grandpa put his shovel into
the dirt. He stepped on it and pried it up. A large section of dirt,
filled with roots and vegetation was tossed on top of the moor grass.
"Here you go, laddie. Here’s peat."
Thom squatted down and
examined it. "There are a lot of pieces of roots and grass in it, isn’t
there?" He touched it. "It’s spongy."
They spent the next few
hours cutting the peat. Thom helped by jumping on the shovel. "Now, we’ll
have to leave them out to dry for a few days and hope it doesn’t rain.
Should we have those buns now?"
Thom nodded. He was getting
tired. "I want a bun, Grandpa, then can we go home?"
"Sure, laddie," he said,
handing Thom two buns.
As they were nibbling on
them, Thom saw something move in the distance. It was black and scary
looking. "What’s that?" he asked, pointing. "It looks like some sort of
beast?"
Grandpa raised his hand
over his eye. He saw the cat. "It looks like a leopard or black panther. I
don’t think it will harm us but we’d better be getting home." He took
Thom’s hand and picked up the shovel. They headed quickly across the moor
towards the croft. Grandpa turned around and noticed the big cat was
following them. "Pick up speed, will ye, lad," he ordered and started
moving quicker.
Suddenly the cat roared.
Thom turned around and saw it. "Grandpa, it’s going to eat us. Look how
big it is? I’m scared."
"It’s all right lad, we’ll
be fine. We just need to hurry back to the croft. Don’t be scared."
They ran back to the croft
and shut the door tightly behind them. Grandpa looked out the window. The
cat was there, in their garden. "Stay inside, all of you. Don’t open the
door." Thom ran into his mum’s arms. They watched as the cat moved around.
"I think its hungry. It must have smelled our buns. Gran, do you have any
of that lamb’s leg leftover from last night?"
"Yes, I’ll get it," she
answered. Thom’s mum and gran went into the kitchen. They came back
carrying a platter full of bone and gristle, and little bits of leftover
lamb. "Be careful," she urged.
Grandpa opened the door and
set the platter outside. The large cat pounced onto the plate just as he
slammed the door shut again. They watched him gulped it down. "It’s huge.
Look at those eyes. They’re yellow," Thom noticed.
Grandpa saw that it was a
nursing cat, probably needing nourishment for some cubs back on the moor.
After it finished eating, the animal carried the bone in its mouth and ran
back to the moor.
"It’s gone, Grandpa. It
must have been really hungry," Thom said, smiling. He wasn’t scared now
that it had left. "When we go back to get the peat, will it come back?"
"I’ll take the truck to get
the peat," Grandpa said, sitting down on the couch.
Gran sat next to him. "Now,
Thom, tell your gran all about the peat."
His mum stood smiling as
Thom cuddled next to his gran and spent the next hour telling her
everything they’d done that day. After that they had a bowl of barley
soup. His mum took him up to his bed and soon his eyes were shut and he
was asleep. It had been an exciting day for Thom. |
