Sure, here goes:

Once, in a small town in Scotland, there lived a young lad who dearly loved the bagpipes. He desperately wanted to be able to play all the hornpipes and reels, like other bagpipe players he admired. He wanted to be able to share his love of the music with other people, and see their faces light up with joy at the sound of the tunes. But when he tried to play the pipes himself, the only sounds he could produce were screeching noises. Day after day he practiced; hour upon hour. And yet he never improved.

Soon, the townsfolk had had enough. The boy sounded as if he were murdering the pipes rather than playing them. So the gave him an ultimatum: either move away from the town, or cease playing the pipes altogether. The boy was heart-broken. All he wanted was to make people happy with his music, but he was doing just the opposite.

So he took his pipes and went for a walk. He needed to make a decision. He walked a short ways out of town, found a large rock to sit on, and tried to think. He wasn't there long, when he was suddenly aware he was no longer alone. Beside him stood a wee man--one of the wee folk, to be sure.

"I understand you have a bit of a dilemma." The wee man said. "Well, I am willing to give you a gift, but it will have a condition. I will teach you a tune for your pipes. You will be able to play it, however here you have to make a choice. You see, it is a magic tune, a Faery tune. The tune can be played so that it will sound lovely and charming to you, but not to anyone who hears you play it; or, it will sound awful to you, but lovely to all who hear it. Which will it be?"

Well, it was not an easy choice. The boy didn't like the idea that what he played would sound awful to his own ears. However, then he imagined those happy faces of people dancing to hid pipe playing. He believed that would give him far more satisfaction.

And so the faery taught him the tune. When he played it, he thought it sounded too dreadful to bear. But he continued playing it as he made his way back into town. On the streets of the town, the people could hear this wonderful music in the distance. As the sound came closer, everyone was surprised to see it was the bow, on his bagpipes, playing the lovely tune. The boy, in turn, saw the glowing, happy faces as people began to dance. He felt such immense joy at this sight. From then on the tune was called The Faery's Hornpipe in honour of the faery who gave it as a gift to us.

----------- I'm afraid I don't have a written source for the story. I learned it from a tin whistle player in Sudbury, Ontario, called Tom Ryan. He told the story, followed by the tune, at a Ceilidh there. I've never seen the story anywhere. I play the tune on a recorder. If you want to find it, it's available on-line on the Tuneweb Webpage:

http://itpubs.ucdavis.edu/richard/music/tuneweb/

Hope you enjoy it!