Another Caithness Story

I heard this tonight just outside the pub where we went for dinner. It is a very Caithness kind of story. I have made up names because the person telling me the story said it was a true story.

Mrs. M. came from a large family and she had several bairns herself. Unlike others in her family, she insisted that all her children get jobs. And they all got jobs of one kind or another. One of her bairns was a bit slow "Everything was there, but just, a bit backwards". He got a job pushing a broom and trash cans. He did it well and worked hard and was admired for his work. One day he met a neighbor who had some fresh crabs in a bag.

"Hello, Sandy McNabb,"

"Hello, Chimmy."

"What do ye have in the bag there?"

"Crabs."

"I have never had crabs."

"Oh surely you have."

"No, no one ever gave them to me before."

So his neighbor gave him the crabs and told him "Just put them in the tattie pan and boil them."

A few weeks later they met up again. Sandy asked Chimmy, "How did you like those crabs?"

"Oh, don't give me any more, they were no good."

"No good? What do you mean?"

"Oh, we boiled them for 12 hours and even so we could not get a fork into them."