The Fairy Boat

One day Ruth was taking a walk along the shore of Belfast Lough with her puppy Sheba and her brother Iain, when she saw a beautiful boat coming towards them. The frame of the boat was of crystal, the mast was of silver and the sail was of silk. It was a small boat, with just two sailors in it, a man and a woman. The man wore a tunic with long sleeves over a pair of tights and the woman wore a long dress also with long sleeves. They both had long golden hair and they both wore narrow gold bands to keep their hair in place.

As they came closer to the shore, they furled sail and took out two silver paddles with which they paddled their way until the boat was beached. They stepped out onto the beach and looked around them. “Who are you?” asked Iain. “We are two of the Fair Folk,” said the woman “And we have come to show you a great treasure.” “Where is this treasure?” asked Iain. “That you will know later” said the man. “But just step in our boat and we will show it to you.”

Ruth wanted very much to go, but Iain said “You know it is dangerous to go off with strangers. Mum and dad have told us so. I don’t know who these Fair Folk are but they may mean to do us harm, and who knows if they will ever bring us back. It’s obvious that they don’t belong here. Did you ever see anyone dressed like that in the streets of Holywood?” “That is not polite,” said the woman. “Do we look like evildoers?” “Handsome is as handsome does,” said Iain. “And you should not look a gift horse in the mouth,” said the man. “All that glitters is not gold”, said Iain. “Speech is silver, silence is golden,” said the woman. “We will not argue with you any longer. If you are afraid of us, stay on the shore.” The two of them stepped back in the boat.

Just then Sheba who had been struggling to get at the Fair Folk wriggled out of Ruth’s arms and jumped into the boat. “Sheba, they’re taking Sheba!” cried Ruth, and got into the boat after her. Iain hesitated for a moment. He felt that the Fair Folk were dangerous but he could not go back to his parents and say that he had allowed Ruth to be carried off in a boat by two strangers, so he got in too. The moment the two children were in the boat, the two strangers unfurled their sail, and set off at great speed across the lough, although there was not a breath of wind stirring.

Then before the children knew what was happening, the sail had been furled once more and the boat was sinking rapidly towards the bottom of the lough. “Oh, we’re drowning,” called out Ruth and Iain and Ruth clutched Sheba closely to her. “Do you really think you’re drowning?” asked the woman. “Look around you.” The children looked and saw that they were in a crystal shaft with water pressing against the side of the shaft but not coming in. The boat was descending the shaft as if it were a lift, quite slowly and steadily, cushioned on the air beneath it. Air was all around, as fresh and good as on the beach.

The crystal shaft widened as they went down until it formed a vast underwater cave. The boat settled on the pure white sand on the bottom and they all got out. The cavern seemed to stretch for miles in every direction and Ruth held Sheba tightly so that she couldn’t run away and get lost. The cavern was so huge and so high that there were buildings in it. The man and the woman lead Ruth and Iain to the grandest of them, that was built all of white marble. A guard opened the carved wooden doors for them and they stepped onto a thick long carpet which lead to a throne on which a queen was sitting with a crown on her head. There were two smaller thrones, one on either side of her, but they were empty.

The children were lead down the long carpet until they were in front of the throne of the Queen. But Ruth still held on to Sheba. The Queen smiled at them and said “Ruth and Iain, I am glad to see you. I have longed to see children in our crystal cave once more. The Fair Folk live forever but we have not had any children for many, many years. Will you stay with me and be my children? See, there is a golden throne prepared for each of you and you shall sit on your golden thrones on either side of me and eat from golden dishes and drink from golden cups and we shall listen to the music of the Harpers and the tales of the storytellers and we shall be oh! so happy forever.”

“No, no!” exclaimed Ruth and Iain. “You’re not our mother. We want our own Mum and Dad. We don’t want to live at the bottom of the lough. We want to be up in the air and the sunshine

lain wanted to cry too, but he didn't. The Queen looked angry.

"Do you dare to refuse my offer?" she said. "Many children would be only too happy to agree.

Very well then. Since you will not be a prince and princess of the Fair Folk, you shall be my slaves. Guard lead them away!"

But when the guard put his hands on Ruth and lain, Sheba started to bark. She barked and she barked and she barked. The guard stepped back and the queen put her hands over her ears. "I

can't stand that noise. Oh do go away! I don't want you here with that dreadful dog. Oh please go!" "What will you give us if we agree to go?" asked lain. "When the man and the woman who brought us here asked us to come, they said they would show us a treasure. Where is your treasure?" "Yes," said Ruth. I want some treasure to take back to my Mum. "Oh yes, you shall

have treasure," said the Queen eagerly. "Guard, bring the treasure chest!"

Sheba went on and on barking as if she knew that this was the thing to do and the queen cowered on her throne. Then the guard came back with a huge golden box, set it down before the children and opened it. It was full of gold coins and precious jewels.

lain filled his pockets and put necklaces and bracelets and rings on Ruth as well as he could, because she was still holding on tight to Sheba. Then the queen said "You have got your treasure now. That was what you came for, you miserly brats, and now you have got it. You could have had something far better and you didn't want it. You have the treasure. Much good may it do you. Now get out of my sight. Go home!"

The guard lead them back to the boat without a word. They all stepped in and the boat rose up through the crystal shaft till it reached the surface and then it sailed across the lough until it reached the point on the shore where Ruth and lain had been standing at the beginning of this adventure. Sheba did not stop barking for one minute until they were safe on the shore, and Ruth did not stop holding on tight to her. Then when they were safe on the shore again and the guard had sailed off, Sheba finally stopped barking and Ruth and lain heaved a sigh of relief.

"Let's go straight home," said Ruth. "I want to give my jewellery to Mum." lain looked at her. "I'm sorry Ruth," he said "But it's not jewellery anymore. It's all shells and seaweed."

"You're playing a trick on me," said Ruth. "No, I'm not" said lain. "Just look and touch and you'll see." Ruth looked and touched, and indeed the jewellery had changed to shells and seaweed. "Look in your pockets, lain," she said. "Maybe your gold coins and precious stones are all right." lain put his hands in his pockets but all he could find there was pebbles and dried leaves. "They're a tricky lot those Fair Folk. Full of promises but they don't keep them."

"Promises are like piecrust, made to be broken," said Ruth. "And fair words butter no parsnips." said lain. And so they went home, glad they had a real Mum and Dad to go to.