Chapter 2
The Red Robber
There once was a family who lived in the woods. There was a father and mother and they had one boy and two girls, who they loved very much. The father was strong and quiet, the mother was firm and loud, but the children were very bad. They did not heed the gentle suggestions of their father nor their shouts of their mother. They were also mean to their siblings. They pushed each other out of trees, tripped each other, blamed each other for things they did themselves, and broke things just to see them break. The father and mother were very upset, and tried many different ways to stop the children from their bad behavior. But they would not listen, and they would not change.
One day, the boy threw rocks at his two sisters while they played near their house. The two sisters became angry with their brother and beat him unmercifully. The father heard his cries, and when he saw the boy and the awful beating he took, he called for mother to ride for the doctor, which she did. The two sisters made jokes while they waited.
“He looks like a plum!” said one cheerily.
“And he’s such a baby – wah wah wah!” said the other.
The father was angry, but held his tongue and did all he could for the boy until the doctor arrived. The doctor said he was very close to dying, but treated his wounds and said the boy would have him rest for a few weeks. Mother assured him they would and the doctor left. The father and mother carried the boy inside and the father tended to the wounds. The mother was angry at the two girls and sent them to bed without any supper, which caused them to throw an awful tantrum.
When morning came, the sisters thought it was odd that they did not receive a beating or a lecture or further punishment like they normally would. Instead, the mother and father only said that the boy would be better by Celebration Day. At the mention of Celebration Day, the children’s eyes, including the boys, grew wide with greed. Everyone got presents on Celebration Day, brought to them by the Magical Man in the Red Suit late at night. And if one did not get something they liked when they woke in the morning, they would make every attempt to destroy the other children’s gifts, so that no one was happy.
As Celebration Day approached, the boy, now recovered, and the two girls asked the father and mother if they should write down what they wanted, as they usually did for the Magical Man in the Red Suit. The father and mother said that wouldn’t be necessary this year. The children were confused, but soon went back to fighting and forgot.
On Celebration Eve, the children plotted to stay awake until the Magical Man in the Red Suit arrived so they could beat him up and try to take the toys he had brought for other children. They kept from falling asleep by plotting how they would attack the Magical Man in the Red Suit, and greedily imagining how much they could get from him.
Finally, they heard the door open slowly. The three children burst out of bed and rushed toward him. The boy had a knife and each of the two girls had horse whips. But when they saw the man, they stopped.
“You have a red suit, but you are skinny and not at all jolly. You are not the Magical Man!” they cried.
“Indeed, I am not,” said the man. “I am the Red Robber, and I come to your house when the Magical Man in the Red Suit cannot.”
“Have you brought us gifts?” the boy asked.
“Oh, I don’t bring gifts. I take children. Naughty children.”
The children became frightened and ran to their parent’s room and flung open the door. But there was no one there.
The Red Robber laughed an evil laugh.
“They have left you here alone, knowing that I would come and steal you away.”
The boy was frightened, but lunged with the knife at the Red Robber, and sunk the blade into his chest up to the handle. The Red Robber did not even move. Blood poured from his chest all over the floor and the Red Robber sighed.
“Such a mess,” he said, and pulled the knife from his chest. The children gasped as they watched the wound close and the blood stop. “Now you have done it,” said the Red Robber. “I will have to call my Monster to deal with you.”
Now the children were extremely frightened and began to cry.
“Monster!” called the Red Robber, “Come get the boy!”
No sooner had he said the words than a blur of hair and teeth and snarling flashed through the house and gobbled up the boy. It was to his two sisters as if he had just disappeared.
“Now come with me,” said the Red Robber to the girls, “or I will call the Monster back to take you.”
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Two years later, it was Celebration Day again. The two girls had been sent home for two weeks.
The father and mother were happy to see them, but said nothing of the Red Robber or where they had been. The girls were very well behaved, and listened obediently to everything the father and mother said. When Celebration Day came, the sisters stayed in bed until the father and mother called them in the morning. They came out and opened their gifts when the father and mother said they may. The children smiled and politely showed each other their new treasures, then one of the sisters began sweeping the floor, while the other went out to feed the livestock.
No one ever spoke of the brother again.
