THE BROWNIE AND PRINCE LITTLE PIG

A brownie, a little old fairy man dressed all in brown, lived in a little cottage beside the deep dark dangerous forest in the very north part of Scotland.
He needed wood to heat his house in the cold frozen winter that was beginning, so he went into the forest, gathered up a high pile of sticks, and carried them home along the narrow path.
The brownie heard a clip-clop noise coming towards him. It was a strong young horse, and on its back was a strong young man. When the strong young horse saw the little bent old man it said "Neigh!" which meant, "I am young and strong, I should stop and get out of the way so he can get past."
But the young man on the horse's back was the prince who lived in the castle outside the forest, and no-one had ever taught him how to say Please, or Thank You, or I'm Sorry. He had no manners.
The prince said, "Get on, horse!"
The horse had to clip-clop on, and it banged into the brownie, and knocked him down.
The prince looked down, and said, "You dropped all your sticks. You will have to pick them all up again. Get on, horse." The prince rode away into the deep dark dangerous forest.
The brownie got up, and made sure none of his old bones were broken. Then he began to pick up his sticks.
When he picked up one stick he heard it make a sound, the sound of the wind in the high trees, the sound of the water over the shining pebbles in the stream, the sound of the autumn rain on the grass.
"A magic stick," said the brownie, and he nodded his head. He listened to all the other sticks till he found another magic one. He took the two magic sticks and laid them one across the other in the middle of the narrow path. Then he waited. Patiently. He knew the prince would have to come back home along the narrow path.
At last he heard the clip-clop, and the horse and prince came riding back. When the horse saw the magic sticks it said "Neigh" but the prince said "Get on, horse".
When the horse stepped across the sticks it gave a little shake, and the prince fell off its back and rolled away into the bushes. The horse waited a little while, but the prince did not come out of the bushes. The horse felt hungry, so it went away home.
The brownie picked up the magic sticks and put them with the rest of his bundle of firewood. Then he sat and waited. After a while out of the bushes came not a young prince, but a small animal. It had four short legs with sharp trotter hooves at the ends, a curly-wurly little tail, and smooth back with not much hair, little pointy ears and a strong face with a big round nose. It was a pig.
The pig said something in a snorty voice. Fortunately the brownie could understand pig language. He answered, "It serves you right. It was the magic sticks, not me. When you rode across them they could tell that you have no manners, that you do not know how to say Please or Thank You or I'm Sorry. Anyone who has no manners is really a pig. And you will stay a pig till you learn some manners."
The pig asked a snorty question.
"How do you learn manners?" said the brownie. "I'll tell you a magic spell. If you can solve it you will learn manners. If not, you will stay a pig."
The brownie told the pig this magic spell.

A broken stick across your head,
A pebble from the river bed.
The top leaf from the topmost tree,
A maiden's kiss will set you free.

Then he told the pig the spell again so he would remember it.
"Good luck," said the brownie. He picked up the magic sticks, and the rest of his bundle of sticks, and went home.
The little pig sat and thought. "Here am I in the deep dark dangerous forest. Who lives in the deep dark dangerous forest? The foxes and the wolves and the bears and the badgers. And what is their favourite food? Meat. And what is the tenderest meat? Little pig!"
The pig thought, "I will go back to my castle and find a witch or a wizard or a warlock who will take this spell off me."
The little pig began to run along the narrow path.
He came out of the forest. At the door of the first little house a girl was standing. When she saw the little pig she cried, "Sausages and bacon have come to visit me."
She ran back into her house, got a rope, tied a noose at one end, and threw it to catch the pig as he trotted by. The rope caught the pig. The girl pulled on the rope. The pig dug his little trotters into the ground and pulled back. The girl pulled on the rope. The pig pulled back. The girl pulled on the rope. Still she could not pull the pig towards her.
She kept hold of the rope with one hand. With the other she reached down and got hold of a big thick stick. She hit the pig over the head with the stick. Hard.
But the stick broke on the pig's head without hurting him, and at the same time the rope came loose from around his neck, although she was very good at tying knots. The pig escaped, and ran back into the forest, for it was safer to be in the forest than outside it.
The pig sat down and tried to rub his head. Then he thought, "Wait a minute. That was the first part of the magic spell. 'A broken stick across your head.' What was the next bit? 'A pebble from the river bed.' Where is the river?"
He went deeper into the forest, this way and that way, till he heard the sound of the rushing river, then he saw the glint of the bright water through the trees and bushes. He came to the bank, and looked down to the bottom of the river and saw the bright stones shining there.
"I need one of those," he said, and jumped into the river.
Unfortunately, pigs are terrible at diving down to the bottom of rivers.. Every time he tried to dive down to get a bright pebble, he came popping and plopping up again. He tried and tried, but he was too good at floating on the top of the river.
At last he climbed out of the river, and sat down squelch on the river bank. But as well as squelch, when he sat down he heard a crunch noise. Then he heard a polite but rather angry voice beside him
The voice said, "Excuse me, look what you've done to my house!"
The pig got up and looked. He had indeed sat on the person's house and broken it. The frame had been made of twigs leaning together, then covered by leaves. The person was small, with long thin arms and legs, flappy hands and feet, and coloured green.
"Rivet, rivet," said the little green person as he poked at the ruins of his winter house. He was a frog.
"Oh, I didn't mean to do that," said the pig. "I had better build you a new house."
With his sharp teeth he could bite twigs to the right length, with his hot breath he could melt the ice that held all the leaves together, with the neat edge of his round nose he could scrape the leaves up till he made a new house. It was 3.73 times better than the one he had squashed flat.
"I must give you a present for your work," said the frog. He dived into the stream, down and down to the very bottom, where he took one of the shining stones into his mouth, then swam back up and climbed out of the water.
The pig put the shining pebble into his left ear, and said to the frog, "Thank you for that." He said 'Thank you'. He was beginning to learn manners!
Now, what was the next bit of the magic spell? "The top leaf from the topmost tree." He must find the highest tree in the forest.
He went this way and that, up over hillocks and down through scratching bushes, till he found the tallest trees in the deep dark dangerous forest. At the tiptop of the tallest tree he saw the last leaf of summer hanging. He began to climb the tree. Unfortunately pigs are even worse at climbing up trees than they are at diving down into the bottom of rivers. Up he scrambled. Down he slid. Up and up he scrambled. Down and down he slid. Up and up and up he scrambled, and dug in tight with his little sharp trotters. But down and down and down he slid. To the very bottom. Making deep scratch marks in the tree's bark all the way.
"Sorry, tree, I didn't mean to do that to your bark, I hope it will grow back all right" he said. He said sorry! He was learning his manners.
At the tiptop of the topmost tree the last leaf of summer let go of the twig it had been holding on tight to, and floated down, and landed right inside the pig's right ear. The deep scratch marks on the tree's bark seemed to shiver, then to quiver, then the marks melted away. The tree was whole again.
"Thank you for the leaf, tree," said the pig, and went away. As he walked he thought, "The last thing I have to do is to get 'a maidens' kiss to set me free'. But what nice young girl would kiss a little pig? I am not on."
The little pig heard a howling kind of a noise far away in the deep dark dangerous forest.
"What's that? A fox or a wolf or a bear or a badger? Maybe they can smell me and
they're calling me to go and get eaten?"
But the noise was not young and strong, it was old and weak. The noise did not sound like, "Here, piggy piggy. Here, piggy piggy." It sounded like, "Oh michty me, oh michty me." Some old person was in trouble.
The pig went through the forest, this way and that, till it found the noise. A little old lady was all tangled up in sharp-thorned bramble stems. She had come out to the secret place she knew in the forest where the last brambles grew, and she could not see how to get herself free because she had left her glasses at home.
The pig could see how to lead her out, so he went up to her and grunted, "Hullo, are you all right?"
The little old lady said, "Ow, who is it? What is it? It's a fox or a wolf or a bear or a badger come to eat me. Ow ow ow ow!"
The little pig put on his politest voice, and grunted, "Hullo and good morning madam. Please do not alarm yourself, I have merely come to assist you in your troubles." He had learned how to say please!
The old lady did not speak pig language, but she could tell this was a very polite animal. It could not be a fox or a wolf or a bear or a badger after all. It must be a little
ig. So when the pig carefully took hold of the hem of her long ragged dress with its sharp teeth, and began to tug the old lady towards the path, she followed it.
She followed it all the way along the path, right out of the deep dark dangerous forest. At the door of the first little house that girl who had tried to catch the pig was standing. She saw her little old mother coming home safe out of the deep dark dangerous forest, and ran to give her a hug.
"You left your glasses behind. How did you find your way home?"
It wasn't me, it was this little pig."
The girl was so grateful to the pig for bringing her mother home safe, she picked the pig up and kissed it right on its nose. The leaf fell out of its right ear, and when it hit the ground a cloud of fog sprang up. The pebble fell out of its left ear, and made a loud cracking sound when it hit the ground, and the fog was split open and faded away.
The young prince stood there, muddy and tattered, grass in his hair and bark under his fingernails. He felt very grateful.
"Oh, madam, thank you thank you. I see I have startled you, so sorry, please forgive me." His manners had become very good indeed. "You are a very nice young lady. Would you care to marry me?"
"What? Who are you?"
"I am the prince and I live in the castle over there."
She had often admired the prince as he rode by on his high horse, and dreamed about him maybe stopping to talk to her.
"Well, I'm not sure. Let's talk about it."
They got married. The brownie came to the wedding. He brought four presents. He gave one magic stick to the bride, and the other one to her mother.
"If ever he forgets his manners, forgets to say please or thank you or I'm sorry, take a stick out and show it to him."
The brownie quietly when no-one was looking gave the prince a shiny pebble, and a dry leaf.
"Keep them in the brim of your hat. Just in case."