KEBO’S RUG

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 816, 9 November 1929, Page 31

KEBO’S RUG

A Wedding Gift That Vanished

Kebo'was a young Gnome carpenter who worked very hard all day, for he was to be married soon to a very sweet girl named Kelsie. and he needed all the money he could get to furnish his cottage. When the day of the wedding was very near, a lew of his friends said that they would give him a wedding present of a warm woollen rug, and together they went into the shop of Mr. Cobchick, to see if they could buy a good rug there. The shopman put 11 rugs on the counter and said:

“They are all thick and warm and made of wool of the best quality." The young Gnomes looked carefully at them, then one. whose name was Bobil, said:

“Here is a rug that seems different from the rest, and in the centre of it is an odd pattern of stripes and spots.”

“Well, young men,” said Mr. Cobchick, "as you have noticed something strange about this rug 1 will tell you what I know of it. A week ago I told our best rugmaker to send me ten rugs, and when they came 1 put them on a shelf, after first counting them. Two days later, I moved them to another shelf, and as I put them on it I counted them again, and there were eleven. I cannot tell you where the extra rug came from —1 only wish I could—for I do not like this sort of thing to happen in my shop. That rug with the stripes and spe s in the; centre is the # one I am filing you about.” “Then, w said the young Gnomes, “we will buy it as a present for Kebo, for we think it will bring him luck.” When evening came and the day's work was finished, the young Gnomes took the rug to Kelsie’s home and showed it to her. ‘‘We are making a present of this to Kebo,” they said, “for he is a friend we think very highly of.” “That is very kind of you.” said Kelsie, “and it is a beautiful rug, but what a strange patttrn of stripes and spots is worked in the centre of it.” “It is a j+range rug altogether,” said the Gnomes, fox the shopkeeper does not know how it got on to his shelves.” At lunch time, on the lay before the wedding, Kebo met his young friends at a party given bv them in their workshop. After a happy meal. Bobil stood up and said: “Kebo, we have met to wish you and Kelsie happiness in your in; rried life and we are giving you this rug as a mark of our love for you.” lie then placed the rug on Kebo’s shoulder's, and sat down as his friends cheered and clapped their hands. Kebo stood up and said: “Dear friends, I shall think of your kindness whenever iny hands touch this rug.” As he spoke he put his hands up to the rug, and as they touched it he went out of their sight, but where to, no one could say. His empty chair stood there, but he and the rug were gone, and his friends looked at each other, too overcome to speak. When evening came, Bobi! went to the cottage of Kelsie, and told her. as kindly as he could, that Kebo was gone, that no one had seen him go, nor could they say if he would ever return. To try and forget her sadness, Kelsie made up her mind to go for long -walks every day, and she said to her parents: “I shall never give up hoping that Kebo will come back to me.” On her first day out, after tramping many miles, she sat down to rest, when she saw a white dog come over a nearby hill. It came and sat at her feet and put its cold nose on her hands, and she saw that in the middle of its back was a strange marking of stripes and spots. “This is the marking that was on Kebo's rug,” she said. “What does it mean?” None of Kebo's friends was able to rell Kelsie what it meant, and every day she went walking, the dog, which had never been seen by anyone in Gnometown before, went with her. She often noticed that there was one place at the side of the road, far out in the country, that the dog always ran to, where he whined loudly and became strange in his manner. Kelsie counted each day that passed, always wondering on which one, if on any, Kebo would come back to hex'. “Ninety days since he left me, doggie,” she said one day as they walked along together. “Where can he be?” When the next day came, Kelsie went for her usual walk, but the dog, which had gone so faithfully with her for ninety days, was not there, and Kelsie had to .start alone. As she walked sadly along the country road, hoping that he would spring from some hiding-place, she heard a

fluttering of wings in an overhead tree, and looking up saw a beautiful white bird, whose only colour was a strange marking on its back. “Oh. I am frightened.” cried Kelsie. holding up her shaking hands. “What can it all mean, this strangely-coloured pattern of stripes and spots, first on the rug. then on the dog, and now on this white bird?”

The bird seemed to wish to be friendly, and flew close to Kelsies head as she stood underneath the tree. From that day it went With her when she walked, flying from tree to tree and post to post. Kelsie noticed with wonder that it always flew to the place the dog had always run to. at the side of the road, and shook its wings there and scratched at the ground. Then one day she said to herself: “Ninety days the white dot walked with me, ami ninety d&vs the white bird has flown with me and they both have had on their backs the coloured marking that was «*n Kebo’s rug. yet 1 cannot find out the meaning of any of it.”

On the next morning Kelsie went to the Library, where she often read some of the stories of the Gnomes and Bloggs.

“There are so many tales written here,” she said, “that I could come and read them every day, and yet never read them all.”

She took from a dark corner a book that was thick with the dust of many years, a book that perhaps no one had ever looked at. and in it she read these words:

“Hundreds of years ago, when Gnometown was a little village buried among the trees whose tops ran.into th«y clouds, there came, one day. a stranger. He rode a white horse, at whose feet ran a white dog, and flying with them was a white bird, and around them all moved dancing shadows. Now this stranger had. wrapped around his shoulders, a rug, and no Gnome had even seen such a rug before. In the centre of it was a strange marking of stripes and spots of many beautiful colours, and on the back of the white dog, and ct the white bird, the same coloured markings Were seen, and even the very shadows that flickered around them were full of the same colours.

“The stranger said: lam a king, but I have no country. I have ridden here in ninety days. I shall ride on for ninety days, then i shall return in ninety days, and my saddlebags will break under the weight of the gold they carry. 1 have no home and I have no country, but my coat of arms is worked in many colours on my tug.’

“That day the strange King rode out of Gnometown, and with him were the white dog, the white bird, and the coloured shadows. He rode away into the. unknown world of bush-covered hills and valleys, and of wild mountains that reached to the sky, and he never came back.”

Kelsie closed the book and walked home. It was all too strange for her to understand. The white bird, that had flown with her for ninety days, had gone, as the dog before had gone, and when she went for her daily walks she often ’noticed shadow’s of many colours dancing about her. shadows that seemed to leap with joy at the place on the side of the road, where the dog had been whining and excited, and the bird had shaken its wings and scratched the ground. Then again came the ninetieth day. the ninetieth day that the shadows had gone with Kelsie. She thought of what sha had read in the storybook, and wondered what it all meant. The next day came, and she said: I cannot put up with this sadness much longer, and I want Kebo, not dogs or birds or shadows.”

She walked into the country until she came to the well-known place at the side of the road, and close to it. spread on the grass, was a rug, a rug with coloured stripes and spots worked inf its centre. She eagerly picked it up.

“It is Kebo’s,” she cried joyously, and as she spoke a white dog walked toward her,, and a white bird flew to the ground. And as they met in the midst of coloured shadows they faded out of sight, and in their place stood Kebo.

What a wonderful meeting this was for the lovers on the country road, and who can tell how great was their joy? When Kelsie spoke of the place the dog and the bird and the shadows had always gone to, Kebo went there, and with his strong hands tore up the earth and took out two saddle-bags, which were so crammed with gold that the seams were bursting.

It was a happy day in Gnometown when Kebo and Kelsie were married, and the Gnomes said:

“Kelsie has had too much sorrow. Now that Kebo has found the saddlebags of money she will be to have everything she needs.”

They drove away to a new cottage, and the years passing by were just one happy’ day after another. They kept the rug that had once belonged to an unknown King, and their babies were always laughing when they sat