Whippety Stourie

There was once a gentleman that lived in a very grand house, and he
married a young lady that had been delicately brought up. In her
husband's house she found everything that was fine--fine tables and
chairs, fine looking-glasses, and fine curtains; but then her husband
expected her to be able to spin twelve hanks o' thread every day, besides
attending to her house; and, to tell the even-down truth, the lady could
not spin a bit. This made her husband glunchy with her, and, before a
month had passed, she found hersel' very unhappy.

One day the husband gaed away upon a journey, after telling her that he
expected her, before his return, to have not only learned to spin, but to
have spun a hundred hanks o' thread. Quite downcast, she took a walk
along the hillside, till she cam' to a big flat stane, and there she sat
down and grat. By and by she heard a strain o' fine sma' music, coming
as it were frae aneath the stane, and, on turning it up, she saw a cave
below, where there were sitting six wee ladies in green gowns, ilk ane o'
them spinning on a little wheel, and singing,

"Little kens my dame at hame
That Whippety Stourie is my name."

The lady walked into the cave, and was kindly asked by the wee bodies to
take a chair and sit down, while they still continued their spinning. She
observed that ilk ane's mouth was thrawn away to ae side, but she didna
venture to speer the reason. They asked why she looked so unhappy, and
she telt them that it was she was expected by her husband to be a good
spinner, when the plain truth was that she could not spin at all, and
found herself quite unable for it, having been so delicately brought up;
neither was there any need for it, as her husband was a rich man.

"Oh, is that a'?" said the little wifies, speaking out of their cheeks
alike.

"Yes, and is it not a very good a' too?" said the lady, her heart like to
burst wi' distress.

"We could easily quit ye o' that trouble," said the wee women. "Just ask
us a' to dinner for the day when your husband is to come back. We'll
then let you see how we'll manage him."

So the lady asked them all to dine with herself and her husband, on the
day when he was to come back.

When the gudeman came hame, he found the house so occupied with
preparations for dinner, that he had nae time to ask his wife about her
thread; and, before ever he had ance spoken to her on the subject, the
company was announced at the hall door. The six ladies all came in a
coach-and-six, and were as fine as princesses, but still wore their gowns
of green. The gentleman was very polite, and showed them up the stair
with a pair of wax candles in his hand. And so they all sat down