Always Room for One More

I grew up in an 1100 square foot (+ unfinished basement) home with my parents and 6 siblings.

We barely managed to fit the dining room table into the dining room–and barely managed to fit ourselves around the table.

But despite all this, we regularly had family, friends, and neighbors over to play or be babysat–and to enjoy dinner with us.

I remember aunts or friends asking Mom if she was really sure that she wanted to babysit their kids. Mom would reply “What’s one or two more?”

I loved that attitude–and still love it–“What’s one or two more?”

No matter how squished we were in the first place, one or two or three more was still plenty do-a-ble.

Always Room for One More by Sorche Nic Leodhas is a children’s story I can definitely identify with. Based on an old Scottish song, the tale tells the story of “Lachie MacLachlan and his good wife, and his bairns to the number of ten.” They live in a little house, but Lachie declares that there’s “always room for one more.”

He invites in a tailor, a sailor, a Piper, a shepherd, soldiers, and more. The whole house is full with dancing and singing, and always with room for one more–until the poor little house simply bursts. Literally.

Poor little house. Poor Lachie MacLachlan. Poor Missus MacLachlan and ten MacLachlan bairns.

Except maybe not.

The many dozens of people to whom they’ve shown hospitality pitch together to rebuild their house–a new house, twice as big as the old–where there’s “always room for one more.”

I’m not precisely sure why this story is filed in my local library as jP Alger (indicating author name Alger.) The text is copyrighted by a Leclaire G. Alger–but I see no indication of who this Alger is or why he or she’s got the copyright. At any rate, it’s filed under A, so I’ve read it along with my books by author “A”.

The back of the book states that the story is an old Scottish popular song that has been handed down at least four generations in the author Sorche Nic Leodhas’s family. Leodhas has half-translated the work into words that can be understood by American readers–but has left in enough Scottish phrases to make the tale’s roots clear.

This was a delightful tale that I enjoyed very much. I definitely recommend that you look it up.