Katie Morag and the Golden Treasure Katie Morag

# Katie Morag

# Run away across the ocean

# Katie Morag

# Over the sea to Struay

# Katie Morag

# Run away across the ocean

# Katie Morag

# Over the seat to Struay. #

'My name is Katie Morag McColl and I live on the island of Struay.

'I suppose it's quite wee but it's ginormous to me

'and everyone looks out for me

'when I'm out and about having my adventures.'

This is where I live with my family.

My mum and dad run the shop and post office.

This is the bedroom I share with my brother Liam.

My mum says it's an absolute midden.

This is the croft where Grannie Island lives

with her animals and hens.

This is the village where Neilly Beag lives.

Hello, how are you doing?

'And I think it's the best place in the whole entire world

'and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.'

# Katie Morag. #

I love playing with Grandma Mainland,

especially when she brings round all her rings and bracelets.

She calls them her golden treasures.

I recon Grandma Mainland must be the shiniest,

sparkliest grandma in the whole entire world.

Yes...

Now, the Queen of Denmark had one just like it.

Which is funny when you think about it cos my other Grannie

isn't shiny and sparkly at all.

DOOR CLICKS

Oh, you're just in time. Now, hold this for me.

I'm running out of hands. Where did I put that washer?

-It's on your finger, silly!

-Oh! So it is. Right, let's see.

-Grannie Island?

-Mm-hmm?

-Why don't you have any jewellery?

Well, there's a brooch on the shelf over there.

You can have it if you like.

But I mean fancy stuff like rings and necklaces.

-Well, I had a ring once but I lost it cutting peat.

-That's awful!

Oh, no-no, we got the insurance money back.

So did you buy another one?

Well, I thought about it but I got myself a new generator instead.

What was it like?

-Petrol-driven, very reliable.

-No, I mean the ring.

Well, it was round. I don't know.

It was gold and had a wee blue stone on the top. An opal, I think.

-Sounds lovely.

-Well, if you like that kind of thing.

'It just didn't seem fair.

'Grandma Mainland had all those golden treasures

'and Grannie Island didn't even have one.

'And then I had one of my brilliant ideas.'

Me and Liam had tons of stuff we didn't use anymore.

If we sold it all I could buy Grannie Island a brand-new ring

like the one she lost.

-Oh! What a lovely painting! Who did that?

-Liam.

-Liam?

-Was that you that did the painting? Oh, wow!

-(It's supposed to be me.)

-Hmm, how much are you asking?

-20p.

Mm.

Here you go, thank you. A pleasure doing business with you. Bye!

-Bye-bye!

-Bye!

-How much did you make?

-20p.

-Hmm. Does it have to be solid gold?

-Yup.

How about a pearl instead of an opal?

-I want it just like her old one.

-OK then. I reckon this is the cheapest.

-How much?

-Including package and postage, £758.38.

How long will it take me to make all that?

At that rate you'll need to be out there every day for the next...

Ten years, four months and three weeks.

I'll be an old grannie by then!

'After lunch, we opened our wee shop again.' Can we help you?

Well, I hope so. I'm looking for something very particular.

The leg of a dinosaur. Maybe about that big.

And I'd be wanting it in green.

Ha!

Ha!

Well, I never! Ideal size and just the right colour!

Oh, dear!

That's a left leg. Where's the right leg I was looking for?

But I'll keep it anyway. Wait till I get money for you.

-Thank you.

-What are you collecting money for, anyway?

I want to buy Grannie Island a new lovely gold ring

-like the one she lost.

-Och, why would you buy it?

There's probably enough gold rings to fill a whole bathtub around here.

-What do you mean?

-Have you ever heard of Captain Kidd?

Well, Captain Kidd was a sailor. He was a pirate. Arr!

And do you know what he did?

He buried a whole load of treasure behind the old sailmaker's house

-right here on Struay.

-We don't have a sailmaker's house in Struay.

Well, there isn't now but there was. It fell down 100 years ago.

Do you know where it was?

Right over there beside your post office.

Finding the treasure wasn't going to be easy but it had to be better

than selling toys every day for the next ten years.

-Anything was better than that.

-That's a wee shame.

-You should tell her to stop.

-What if the legend's true?

-Och!

Maybe just a little longer.

She's doing a grand job for my vegetable patch!

That's enough Katie Morag, you'll give yourself blisters.

DOOR CREAKS

Well, that's some digging you've been doing in the garden.

-Are you building a swimming pool?

-Well...

Och, don't worry, Neilly Beag told me all about it. Silly bodach!

Filling her head with all that nonsense.

She's going to be very disappointed if she doesn't find anything.

I should imagine she will.

After a wee break I carried on digging and digging...

-How's it going?

-..hoping I'd find something.

Well I found the other dinosaur leg

but I'm beginning to think the legend's a whole load of nonsense.

TWANG!

-Oh!

-Oh! What is it?

Oh, my goodness!

What is it?

A list of instructions for those who seek the

-golden treasure of Struay. It's a treasure map!

-What does it say?

When the clock reaches four wrap your neck with a shawl

-and begin the adventure at Castle McColl.

-Why would you need a shawl?

-And why four o'clock?

-Probably some weird pirate thing.

Well, we'd best get going! It's almost four o'clock now!

-It's a minute to four.

-Just in time.

Oh, just imagine, a few hundred years ago

your ancestors would have been

roasting their venison and telling their stories on this very spot.

-I bet they had brilliant fun.

-I bet they did. So, what's next?

Erm, erm, journey up the track past the home of the snipe till you

bump into the world's biggest clipe. Snipe? Isn't that a bird?

Yes, and there's a bunch of them by the Bonnie Loch.

Bonnie Loch it is, then!

Come on lazy bones!

-Ah, the Bonnie Loch.

-It really is Bonnie.

We should come here more often. So, what's next?

The world's biggest clipe.

-What on Earth does that mean?

-Er, telltale, is that a clipe?

-A telltale, a teller of tales! Katie Morag, you're a genius!

-I am?

Where did you and Dad stop for your picnic last time you went to

-visit Uncle Matthew?

-The standing stones?

-Uh-huh.

And what do the old folk of Struay call the standing stones?

The Teller of Tales! I AM a genius!

ISOBEL LAUGHS

There!

The Teller of Tales. I always forget how amazing they are.

I wonder who brought them here. Maybe it was our ancestors.

Hmm, I don't know. But they're REALLY ancient.

Grannie Island was probably still at school!

-I'm telling her you said that!

-Oh, and who's the clipe now?

Onwards and upwards, past this and past that

but be warned you'll have to hold on to your hat.

-Oh!

-SPLASH!

-Oh...

It's not our hats we need to hold on to, it's our wellies!

Oh, I need a breather!

"Onwards and upwards, past this and past that..."

But be warned, you'll have to hold on to your hat.

Why would we need to hold on to our hats?

I know!

Oh, I wish she wouldn't keep doing that!

SQUELCH

-Here we are!

-The Paps of Struay. Well, how do you know...

-Oh!

-'I had remembered Neilly Beag told me of a time

'when his bunnet had blown right off his head up at the Windy Gap.'

-Which way?

-There is but one last stop to make where

Bobby made his big mistake.

-Do you know anyone called Bobby?

-Bobby Campbell?

He runs a tropical-fish shop in Trotternish.

Has he made any mistakes?

Opening a tropical fish shop in Trotternish.

He wouldn't have been born when the map was written.

-Let's keep walking, maybe something will jog my memory.

-Which way?

It's either left to Shell Bay or right to Sir Robert's Folly.

-What's a folly?

-Something that's silly or foolish.

-Like a mistake?

Kind of.

Oh, and what's the nickname for people called Robert?

Bobby!

-Ah, Sir Robert's Folly!

-So, you made it! And not a moment too soon.

-Wha-!

-What are you doing here?

-Waiting for you.

-But how did you know we were here?

-Because I wrote the map.

-You mean it isn't real?

-Well, of course it's real!

But it hasn't led us to the treasure.

Now, what about Castle McColl or the Bonnie Loch?

But that's not the type of treasure I was looking for.

I wanted to get you golden treasure because Grandma Mainland

has so many shiny things and you don't have any.

Is that so?

Well, you come with me.

Grannie Island took us up to the top of the hill

and we sat on the shawls and waited

and it wasn't long before the sky turned golden and the sun sparkled

onto the sea so brightly before it finally disappeared.

And then I understood.

Grannie Island didn't need golden rings or anything like that

because she might lose them again anyway.

No, her idea of precious was the time she was able to head up the hill

to watch the sun go down and she'd never lose that in a peat bank.

And what makes it even better

is sharing it with my real-life treasures.

I still thought I might buy her something shiny one day

but there wasn't any hurry.

She already had all she wanted here in Struay.

And anyway, when you give those washers of hers

a scrub they come up really shiny.

(Good night Grannie Island.)