Tales The Sprightly1 Tailor2 Chapter 4 (Scottish Fable) The leader of the clan MacDonald lives in Scotland, in the big castle of Saddell. One day Lord MacDonald orders an old tailor to make a pair of trousers for him. He wants to wear them during a celebration3. I want a pair of new, elegant trousers, with a lot of decorations! , he says to the tailor. Lord MacDonald likes betting4 and so he says to the tailor, I will pay you double if you go and sew5 my trousers in that old church at night! . In fact, near the castle there are the ruins6 of an old church. The people in the village say that it is a haunted7 place, full of ghosts8 and monsters, but the tailor is a brave man and he wants to have more money, so he agrees9 to go to the church and sew Lord MacDonald s trousers. At midnight he goes to the church with a candle10 in his hand and when he arrives there, he sits on a gravestone11 and starts to sew. Everything is quiet and silent, but after some time he hears a strange sound coming from the floor12 of the church. Then he sees the head of a monster. It is coming out of the floor! The monster s face is horrible! He 1. sprightly: lively. 2. tailor: a person that makes men s clothes. 3. celebration: special event. 4. betting: winning or losing money if something happens. 5. sew: use the needle and thread (see illustration on p. 41). 6. 7. 8. 9. ruins: parts that remain of a building. haunted: full of ghosts. ghost: the spirit of a dead person. agree: have the same opinion. 10. candle: 11. gravestone: 12. floor: the part of the room you walk on. 38