A Scots-irish Tale

Circle each word when you find it in this old Scottish story.

heilan: highland coo: cow wee: small glen: field loch: lake kelpie: a mythical water monster, often shaped like a horse. dagger: a kind of knife braw: good, fine middling: medium size muckle: large size bonnie: pretty, attractive

Long ago, three coos lived in a bonnie glen with lots of fresh, green grass. They ate the grass from sunrise to sunset and soon it was all gone.

There was more yummy grass across a bridge. The bridge was guarded by a terrifying Kelpie that loved to eat coos!

Wee Heilan Coo was the first to reach the bridge. She tried to walk very softly, but the Kelpie heard her. It rose from the water with eyes burning red and teeth bared like daggers. “I’m going to have you for my supper!” roared the Kelpie.

“Oh no!” Wee Heilan Coo cried. “I am only wee. Wait for my sister. She is much bigger and tastier than me.”

The greedy Kelpie sank beneath the water to wait for the bigger meal and Wee Heilan Coo galloped over the bridge.

When Middling Heilan Coo began to cross the bridge, her bigger hooves clipped and clopped noisily and the Kelpie had no trouble hearing her. The Kelpie leaped onto the bridge.

“On no! You don’t want to eat me,” said the Middling Heilan Coo. “My big sister will make a meal fit for a braw big beastie like you.” The Kelpie thought that idea sounded good. It sank below the water again and waited.

Muckle Heilan Coo hurried to join her sisters on the other side of the bridge. Holding her horns high, she clopped onto the bridge. The Kelpie rose from the loch. But Muckle Heilan Coo was not scared.

The Kelpie and Muckle Heilan Coo rushed at each other and met in the middle of the bridge. Muckle Heilan Coo caught the Kelpie in her horns and threw it from the bridge into the deep, dark water of the loch below.

The Kelpie disappeared in a huge splash and sank. It was never seen again. Muckle Heilan Coo shook the seaweed from her horns and walked across the bridge to join her sisters. The glen was full of delicious grass. But the coos had learned their lesson and ate only what they needed.