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| Lowe | Mr Fox |
There once was a young farmer and his wife and when they were first married they were quite poor and for many years he worked as a shepherd. Eventually they saved up enough money to rent their own farm on the hillside. After they'd been living there for a year she gave birth to a little baby boy and the three of them lived there quite content.
Now one day the young farmer had gone out to cut hay for the few cattle they had. The sun was shining so the young wife decided to go out and join her husband, she put the baby in the cradle and she went out to the field.
Good morning wife, what brings you out here today?
It's such a lovely day I thought I'd come out and give you a bit of help turning the hay.
Because in those days the hay was all turned by hand. Now the young farmer had cut the hay with his scythe working outwards from a large rock in the centre of the field. The young woman placed the baby in the cradle on the top of the rock and she started to rake round the field, it was a wonderful day, the baby would be about six months old at this time and it was a beautiful baby and it never gave any trouble at all. But all of a sudden it started to cry.
Ah hah! Ah hah! Ah hah!!!
Well, the young woman dropped the rake and she went over to the baby and she picked him up and started to rock him to and fro but it made no difference.
It's no good, I'll have to take him back to the cottage and see if I can get him to settle down.
But it was no good, try as she might the baby kept crying and he was even crying when the young farmer came home from his work in the evening. They tried everything under the sun to get the baby to stop crying but he cried from morning till night day in and day out. The only time he was quiet was at midnight, when the clock struck twelve the crying would stop but at six o'clock in the morning he would start again.
Now one day the postman came cycling up to the farm. He heard the baby crying.
Ah hah! Ah hah! Ah hah!!!
What's wrong with the baby?
Oh I don't know postie, we've tried our best for the last two weeks but we can’t get any rest at all, the baby just keeps crying and crying.
Let me have a look at him.
The baby was lying in the cradle wrapped in a beautiful white shawl. The postman pulled back the shawl, he took just one glance and he could see that the baby’s skin was dark and sallow, he looked a hundred years old.
This is no baby, this is something strange. I've heard how the fairies sometimes take a baby and put something else in its place.
But he didn't say this to the young couple.
Never mind the baby for a while, the reason I've come up, I haven't got any post for you, it’s just that there's a fair and a market in the village and I wonder if you'd like to go to it?
Oh, we'd love to go but we can't leave the baby not the way he keeps crying.
It's my day off, you go to the market and enjoy yourselves and I'll look after the baby.
Oh, we couldn't leave him with you now, not the way he's crying and crying.
You just go and get the pony and trap ready, go to the market and enjoy yourself, and I'll look after the baby and rock the cradle.
So the young farmer gets the pony and trap ready and off they go down the farm track towards the village.
The postman was sitting there in the kitchen rocking the cradle. The pony’s hooves were fading in the distance when suddenly the baby sat up in the cradle.
Are they gone?
What, what was that you were saying?
Are they gone? Are they gone?
Why yes of course, they've gone to the village to the market.
Then it's time for you and me to have some fun. Go to the cupboard in the corner, you'll find a bottle of whisky and two glasses, bring them here.
The postman did as he was told.
This is no baby, this is something strange.
The baby took a glass and filled it with whisky and handed it to the postman.
Drink up postie.
The baby filled the other glass and tossed it back.
Did you like that postie? Have another one.
The postman was becoming quite mellow.
Do you like music postie?
Oh yes, I've always loved music.
Then I'll tell you what to do. Go out to my father's cornstack, well he calls himself my father, and bring me back the biggest corn of straw you can find.
So the postman goes out into the cornyard.
This is no baby, this is something strange.
He walks round the cornstack and he pulls out the biggest cornstalk he can find.
Then he goes back into the kitchen. The baby is out of the cradle and he's sitting there in front of the fire with his nappy round him bottom. He’s straightened out one of his mother’s hairpins and he’s put it in the fire till it’s red hot. He takes the cornstalk and he breaks one end off and then the other, he leaves about six inches and then he takes the red hot hairpin and he drills holes in the straw. He makes a fairy pipe out of a corn of straw. And he’s sitting there in front of the fire playing the jigs and reels that the postman has never heard before in his life.
Drink up postie.
They finish off the bottle of whisky and the postman is feeling a little the worse for wear. Suddenly they hear the sound of the pony’s hooves coming back up to the farm. The baby throws the cornstalk and the hairpin into the fire and he jumps back into the cradle and starts to cry.
Ah hah! Ah hah! Ah hah!!!
The young farmer starts to take the bridle off the pony and his wife goes into the kitchen. She puts her basket with the groceries on the table.
Oh postman I do hope the baby hasn’t given you too much trouble.
She picks the baby up and starts to rock him.
Oh my poor darling has Mommy been away too long.
The young farmer comes into the kitchen.
I’m sorry we’re so late postman you must have had a dreadful time.
You don’t know the half of it, come into the other room and I’ll tell you all about it.
So they go into the other room.
I’ve had a terrific time, the baby made a fairy pipe out of a cornstalk and he played music I’ve never heard before. We drank a bottle of whiskey together. I tell you he’s no baby, the fairies have taken away your baby and put something in its place.
But he must be my baby.
Listen to what the postman’s saying, he knows what he’s talking about.
Now this is what I want you to do, take one of your own beautiful shawls and go back into the kitchen and bind the baby as tight as you can.
And although the farmer’s wife has misgivings she does as she’s asked. She goes back into the kitchen and she binds the baby till he looks like a little mummy. And then the farmer and his wife follow the postman out onto the moor till they come to a stream where there is a waterfall and a pool below it.
Now this is what I want you to do I shall count to three and I expect you to throw the baby over the waterfall.
Now although she has her misgivings, as any mother would, she knows that the postman is giving good advice.
One, two, three.
And she throws the baby over the waterfall shawl and all and when he hits the water the shawl opens and standing there is not a baby but a little old man, an ugly little old man and he shakes his fist at them.
If I’d known you were going to do that to me then I would have done worse to you while I had the chance.
And then he vanished.
Well the young woman was very upset and they made their way back to the cottage.
Now go and look in the cradle and you will see what you will see.
So she looks in the cradle and smiling back at her is the most beautiful baby she’s ever seen in her life.
Now that is your baby, what you saw before was a changeling, the fairies had taken away your baby and put something in its place.
Now the country folk have many strange beliefs and this is one of them that if a baby is taken away and something is put in it’s place then the only cure for it is to throw it over a waterfall.