{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_21934/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_21934","id":"gutenberg_21934","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21934","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Adventure","Category: British Literature","Category: Historical Novels","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Fairy tales"],"text":"Produced by David Widger\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE\n\nGOLD OF FAIRNILEE\n\nBy Andrew Lang\n\nTO\n\nJEANIE LANG,\n\nLARRA\n\nDear Jeanie,\n\nFor you, far away on the other side of the world, I made this little\ntale of our own country. Your father and I have dug for treasure in the\nCamp of Rink, with our knives, when we were boys. We did not find it:\nthe story will tell you why.\n\nAre there Fairies as well as Bunyips in Australia? I hope so.\n\nYours always,\n\nWHUPPITY STOORIE\u2019S SONG IN THIS TALE\nIS BY THE AUTHOR\u2019S FRIEND, F. De Q. M.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE\n\n[Illustration: Page 237]\n\n[Illustration: Chapter One]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.--_The Old House_\n\nYOU may still see the old Scotch house where Randal was born, so long\nago. Nobody lives there now. Most of the roof has fallen in, there is no\nglass in the windows, and all the doors are open. They were open in the\ndays of Randal\u2019s father--nearly four hundred years have passed since\nthen--and everyone who came was welcome to his share of beef and broth\nand ale. But now the doors are not only open, they are quite gone, and\nthere is nobody within to give you a welcome.\n\nSo there is nothing but emptiness in the old house where Randal lived\nwith Jean, three hundred and sixty years or so before you were born. It\nis a high old house, and wide, with the broken slates still on the roof.\nAt the corner there are little round towers, like pepperboxes, with\nsharp peaks. The stems of the ivy that covers the walls are as thick\nas trees. There are many trees crowding all round, and there are hills\nround it too; and far below you hear the Tweed whispering all day. The\nhouse is called Fairnilee, which means \u201cthe Fairies\u2019 Field;\u201d for people\nbelieved in fairies, as you shall hear, when Randal was a boy, and even\nwhen my father was a boy.\n\nRandal was all alone in the house when he was a little fellow--alone\nwith his mother, and Nancy the old nurse, and Simon Grieve the butler,\nwho wore a black velvet coat and a big silver chain. Then there were\nthe maids, and the grooms, and the farm folk, who were all friends of\nRandal\u2019s. He was not lonely, and he did not feel unhappy, even before\nJean came, as you shall be told. But the grown-up people were sad and\nsilent at Fairnilee. Randal had no father; his mother, Lady Ker, was\na widow. She was still quite young, and Randal thought her the most\nbeautiful person in the world. Children think these things about their\nmothers, and Randal had seen no ladies but his mother only. She had\nbrown hair and brown eyes and red lips, and a grave kind face, which\nlooked serious under her great white widow\u2019s cap with the black hood\nover it. Randal never saw his mother cry; but when he was a very little\nchild indeed, he had heard her crying in the night: this was after his\nfather went away.\n\n[Illustration: Chapter Two]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.--_How Randal\u2019s Father Came Home_\n\nRANDAL remembered his father\u2019s going to fight the English, and how he\ncame back again. It was a windy August evening when he went away: the\nrain had fallen since morning. Randal had watched the white mists\ndriven by the gale down through the black pine-wood that covers the hill\nopposite Fairnilee. The mist looked like armies of ghosts, he thought,\nmarching, marching through the pines, with their white flags flying and\nstreaming. Then the sun came out red at evening, and Randal\u2019s father\nrode away with all his men. He had a helmet on his head, and a great axe\nhanging from his neck by a chain, and a spear in his hand. He was riding\nhis big horse, _Sir Hugh_, and he caught Randal up to the saddle and\nkissed him many times before he clattered out of the courtyard. All the\ntenants and men about the farm rode with him, all with spears and a flag\nembroidered with a crest in gold. His mother watched them from the tower\ntill they were out of sight. And Randal saw them ride away, not on\nhard, smooth roads like ours, but along a green grassy track, the water\nsplashing up to their stirrups where they crossed the marshes.\n\n[Illustration: Page 240]\n\nThen the sky turned as red as blood, in the sunset, and next it grew\nbrown, like the rust on a sword; and the Tweed below, when they rode the\nford, was all red and gold and brown.\n\nThen time went on; that seemed a long time to Randal. Only the women\nwere left in the house, and Randal played with the shepherd\u2019s children.\nThey sailed boats in the mill-pond, and they went down to the boat-pool\nand watched to see the big copper-coloured salmon splashing in the\nstill water. One evening Randal looked up suddenly from his play. It was\ngrowing dark. He had been building a house with the round stones and wet\nsand by the river. He looked up, and there was his own father! He was\nriding all alone, and his horse, _Sir Hugh_, was very lean and lame, and\nscarred with the spurs. The spear in his father\u2019s hand was broken, and\nhe had no sword; and he looked neither to right nor to left. His eyes\nwere wide open, but he seemed to see nothing.\n\nRandal cried out to him, \u201cFather! Father!\u201d but he never glanced at\nRandal. He did not look as if he heard him, or knew he was there, and\nsuddenly he seemed to go away, Randal did not know how or where.\n\nRandal was frightened.\n\nHe ran into the house, and went to his mother.\n\n\u201cOh, mother,\u201d he said, \u201cI have seen father! He was riding all alone, and\nhe would not look at me. _Sir Hugh_ was lame!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhere has he gone?\u201d said Lady Ker, in a strange voice.\n\n\u201cHe went away out of sight,\u201d said Randal. \u201cI could not see where he\nwent.\u201d\n\nThen his mother told him it could not be, that his father would not have\ncome back alone. He would not leave his men behind him in the war.\n\nBut Randal was so sure, that she did not scold him. She knew he believed\nwhat he said.\n\nHe saw that she was not happy.\n\nAll that night, which was the Fourth of September, in the year 1513, the\nday of Flodden fight, Randal\u2019s mother did not go to bed. She kept moving\nabout the house. Now she would look from the tower window up Tweed; and\nnow she would go along the gallery and look down Tweed from the other\ntower. She had lights burning in all the windows. All next day she was\nnever still. She climbed, with two of her maids, to the top of the hill\nabove Yair, on the other side of the river, and she watched the roads\ndown Ettrick and Yarrow. Next night she slept little, and rose early.\nAbout noon, Randal saw three or four men riding wearily, with tired\nhorses. They could scarcely cross the ford of Tweed, the horses were so\ntired. The men were Simon Grieve the butler, and some of the tenants.\nThey looked very pale; some of them had their heads tied up, and there\nwas blood on their faces. Lady Ker and Randal ran to meet them.\n\nSimon Grieve lighted from his horse, and whispered to Randal\u2019s mother.\n\nRandal did not hear what he said, but his mother cried, \u201cI knew it! I\nknew it!\u201d and turned quite white.\n\n\u201cWhere is he?\u201d she said.\n\nSimon pointed across the hill. \u201cThey are bringing the corp,\u201d he said.\nRandal knew the \u201ccorp\u201d meant the dead body.\n\nHe began to cry. \u201cWhere is my father?\u201d he said, \u201cwhere is my father?\u201d\n\nHis mother led him into the house. She gave him to the old nurse, who\ncried over him, and kissed him, and offered him cakes, and made him a\nwhistle with a branch of plane tree, So in a short while Randal only\nfelt puzzled. Then he forgot, and began to play. He was a very little\nboy.\n\nLady Ker shut herself up in her own room--her \u201cbower,\u201d the servants\ncalled it.\n\nSoon Randal heard heavy steps on the stairs, and whispering. He wanted\nto run out, and his nurse caught hold of him, and would not have let him\ngo, but he slipped out of her hand, and looked over the staircase.\n\nThey were bringing up the body of a man stretched on a shield.\n\nIt was Randal\u2019s father.\n\nHe had been slain at Flodden, fighting for the king. An arrow had gone\nthrough his brain, and he had fallen beside James IV., with many another\nbrave knight, all the best of Scotland, the Flowers of the Forest.\n\nWhat was it Randal saw, when he thought he met his father in the\ntwilight, three days before?\n\nHe never knew. His mother said he must have dreamed it all.\n\nThe old nurse used to gossip about it to the maids. \u201cHe\u2019s an unco\u2019\nbairn, oor Randal; I wush he may na be fey.\u201d\n\nShe meant that Randal was a strange child, and that strange things would\nhappen to him.\n\n[Illustration: Chapter Three]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.--_How Jean was brought to Fairnlee_\n\nTHE winter went by very sadly. At first the people about Fairnilee\nexpected the English to cross the Border and march against them. They\ndrove their cattle out on the wild hills, and into marshes where\nonly they knew the firm paths, and raised walls of earth and\nstones--_barmkyns_, they called them--round the old house; and made many\narrows to shoot out of the narrow windows at the English. Randal used\nto like to see the arrow-making beside the fire at! night. He was not\nafraid; and said he would show the English what he could do with his\nlittle bow. But weeks went on and no enemy came. Spring drew near, the\nsnow melted from the hills. One night Randal was awakened by a great\nnoise of shouting; he looked out of the window, and saw bright torches\nmoving about. He heard the cows \u201crouting,\u201d or bellowing, and the women\nscreaming. He thought the English had come. So they had; not the English\narmy, but some robbers from the other side of the Border. At that time\nthe people on the south side of Scotland and the north side of England\nused to steal each other\u2019s cows time about. When a Scotch squire, or\n\u201claird,\u201d like Randal\u2019s father, had been robbed by the neighbouring\nEnglish, he would wait his chance and drive away cattle from the English\nside. This time most of Randal\u2019s mother\u2019s herds were seized, by a sudden\nattack in the night, and were driven away through the Forest to England.\nTwo or three of Lady Ker\u2019s men were hurt by the English, but old Simon\nGrieve took a prisoner. He did this in a curious way. He shot an arrow\nafter the robbers as they rode off, and the arrow pinned an Englishman\u2019s\nleg to the saddle, and even into his horse. The horse was hurt and\nfrightened, and ran away right back to Fairnilee, where it was caught,\nwith the rider and all, for of course he could not dismount.\n\nThey treated him kindly at Fairnilee, though they laughed at him a good\ndeal. They found out from him where the English had come from. He did\nnot mind telling them, for he was really a gipsy from Yetholm, where the\ngipsies live, and Scot or Southron was all one to him.\n\nWhen old Simon Grieve knew who the people were that had taken the cows,\nhe was not long in calling the men together, and trying to get back what\nhe had lost. Early one April morning, a grey morning, with snow in the\nair, he and his spearmen set out, riding down through the Forest, and so\ninto Liddes-dale. When they came back again, there were great rejoicings\nat Fairnilee. They drove most of their own cows before them, and a great\nmany other cows that they had not lost; cows of the English farmers.\nThe byres and yards were soon full of cattle, lowing and roaring, very\nuneasy, and some of them with marks of the spears that had goaded them\nacross many a ford, and up many a rocky pass in the hills.\n\nRandal jumped downstairs to the great hall, where his mother sat. Simon\nGrieve was telling her all about it.\n\n\u201cSae we drave oor ain kye hame, my lady,\u201d he said, \u201cand aiblins some\norra anes that was na oor ain. For-bye we raikit a\u2019 the plenishing oot\no\u2019 the ha\u2019 o\u2019 Hardriding, and a bonny burden o\u2019 tapestries, and plaids,\nand gear we hae, to show for our ride.\u201d *\n\n     * \u201cWe drove our own cattle home, and perhaps some others\n     that were not ours. And we took all the goods out of the\n     hall at Hardriding, and a pretty load of tapestries, and\n     rugs, and other things we have to show for our ride.\u201d\n\nThen he called to some of his men, who came into the hall, and cast down\ngreat piles of all sorts of spoil and booty, silver plate, and silken\nhangings, and a heap of rugs, and carpets, and plaids, such as Randal\nhad never seen before, for the English were much richer than the Scotch.\n\nRandal threw himself on the pile of rugs and began to roll on it.\n\n\u201cOh, mother,\u201d he cried suddenly, jumping up and looking with wide-open\neyes, \u201cthere \u2018s something living in the heap! Perhaps it\u2019s a doggie, or\na rabbit, or a kitten.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: Page 248]\n\nThen Randal tugged at the cloths, and then they all heard a little\nshrill cry.\n\n\u201cWhy, it\u2019s a bairn!\u201d said Lady Ker, who had sat very grave all the time,\npleased to have done the English some harm; for they had killed her\nhusband, and were all her deadly foes. \u201cIt\u2019s a bairn!\u201d she cried,\nand pulled out of the great heap of cloaks and rugs a little beautiful\nchild, in its white nightdress, with its yellow curls all tangled over\nits blue eyes.\n\nThen Lady Ker and the old nurse could not make too much of the pretty\nEnglish child that had come here in such a wonderful way.\n\nHow did it get mixed up with all the spoil? and how had it been carried\nso far on horseback without being hurt? Nobody ever knew. It came as\nif the fairies had sent it. English it was, but the best Scot could not\nhate such a pretty child. Old Nancy Dryden ran up to the old nursery\nwith it, and laid it in a great wooden tub full of hot water, and was\ngiving it warm milk to drink, and dandling it, almost before the men\nknew what had happened.\n\n\u201cYon bairn will be a bonny mate for you, Maister Randal,\u201d said old Simon\nGrieve. \u201c\u2018Deed, I dinna think her kin will come speering* after her at\nFairnilee. The Red Cock\u2019s crawing ower Hardriding Ha\u2019 this day, and when\nthe womenfolk come back frae the wood, they\u2019ll hae other thing to do\nfor-bye looking for bairns.\u201d\n\n     * Asking.\n\nWhen Simon Grieve said that the Red Cock was crowing over his enemies\u2019\nhome, he meant that he had set it on fire after the people who lived in\nit had run away.\n\nLady Ker grew pale when she heard what he said. She hated the English,\nto be sure, but she was a woman with a kind heart. She thought of the\ndreadful danger that the little English girl had escaped, and she went\nupstairs and helped the nurse to make the child happy.\n\n[Illustration: Chapter Four]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.--_Randal and Jean._\n\nTHE little girl soon made everyone at Fairnilee happy. She was far too\nyoung to remember her own home, and presently she was crawling up and\ndown the long hall and making friends with Randal. They found out that\nher name was Jane Musgrave, though she could hardly say Musgrave; and\nthey called her Jean, with their Scotch tongues, or \u201cJean o\u2019 the Kye,\u201d\n because she came when the cows were driven home again.\n\nSoon the old nurse came to like her near as well as Randal, \u201cher ain\nbairn\u201d (her own child), as she called him. In the summer days, Jean,\nas she grew older, would follow Randal about like a little doggie. They\nwent fishing together, and Randal would pull the trout out of Caddon\nBurn, or the Burn of Peel; and Jeanie would be very proud of him, and\nvery much alarmed at the big, wide jaws of the yellow trout. And Randal\nwould plait helmets with green rushes for her and him, and make spears\nof bulrushes, and play at tilts and tournaments. There was peace in the\ncountry; or if there was war, it did not come near the quiet valley of\nthe Tweed and the hills that lie round Fairnilee. In summer they were\nalways on the hills and by the burnsides.\n\nYou cannot think, if you have not tried, what pleasant company a burn\nis. It comes out of the deep; black wells in the moss, far away on the\ntops of the hills, where the sheep feed, and the fox peers from his\nhole, and the ravens build in the crags. The burn flows down from the\nlonely places, cutting a way between steep, green banks, tumbling in\nwhite waterfalls over rocks, and lying in black, deep pools below the\nwaterfalls. At every turn it does something new, and plays a fresh game\nwith its brown waters. The white pebbles in the water look like gold:\noften Randal would pick one out and think he had found a gold-mine,\ntill he got it into the sunshine, and then it was only a white stone,\nwhat he called a \u201cchucky--stane;\u201d but he kept hoping for better luck\nnext time. In the height of summer, when the streams were very low, he\nand the shepherd\u2019s boys would build dams of stones and turf across a\nnarrow part of the burn, while Jean sat and watched them on a little\nround knoll. Then, when plenty of water had collected in the pool, they\nwould break the dam and let it all run downhill in a little flood; they\ncalled it a \u201churly gush.\u201d And in winter they would slide on the black,\nsmooth ice of the boat-pool, beneath the branches of the alders.\n\nOr they would go out with _Yarrow_, the shepherd\u2019s dog, and follow the\ntrack of wild creatures in the snow. The rabbit makes marks like **, and\nthe hare makes marks like **; but the fox\u2019s track is just as if you\nhad pushed a piece of wood through the snow--a number of cuts in the\nsurface, going straight along.\n\n[Illustration: Tracks of Hare and Fox]\n\nWhen it was very cold, the grouse and black-cocks would come into the\ntrees near the house, and Randal and Jean would put out porridge for\nthem to eat. And the great white swans floated in from the frozen lochs\non the hills, and gathered round open reaches and streams of the Tweed.\nIt was pleasant to be a boy then in the North. And at Hallow E\u2019en they\nwould duck for apples in tubs of water, and burn nuts in the fire, and\nlook for the shadow of the lady Randal was to marry, in the mirror; but\nhe only saw Jean looking over his shoulder.\n\nThe days were very short in winter, so far North, and they would soon be\ndriven into the house. Then they sat by the nursery fire; and those\nwere almost the pleasantest hours, for the old nurse would tell them old\nScotch stories of elves and fairies, and sing them old songs. Jean would\ncrawl close to Randal and hold his hand, for fear the Red Etin, or some\nother awful bogle, should get her: and in the dancing shadows of the\nfirelight she would think she saw Whuppity Stoorie, the wicked old witch\nwith the spinning-wheel; but it was really nothing but the shadow of the\nwheel that the old nurse drove with her foot--_birr, birr_--and that\nwhirred and rattled as she span and told her tale.\n\n[Illustration: Page 254]\n\nFor people span their cloth at home then, instead of buying it from\nshops; and the old nurse was a great woman for spinning.\n\nShe was a great woman for stories, too, and believed in fairies, and\n\u201cbogles,\u201d as she called them. Had not her own cousin, Andrew Tamson,\npassed the Cauldshiels Loch one New Year morning? And had he not heard\na dreadful roaring, as if all the cattle on Faldonside Hill were routing\nat once? And then did he not see a great black beast roll down the\nhillside, like a black ball, and run into the loch, which grew white\nwith foam, and the waves leaped up the banks like a tide rising? What\ncould that be except the kelpie that lives in Cauldshiels Loch, and is\njust a muckle big water bull? \u201cAnd what for should there no be water kye,\nif there \u2018s land kye?\u201d\n\nRandal and Jean thought it was very likely there were \u201ckye,\u201d or cattle,\nin the water. And some Highland people think so still, and believe they\nhave seen the great kelpie come roaring out of the lake; or Shellycoat,\nwhose skin is all crusted like a rock with shells, sitting beside the\nsea.\n\nThe old nurse had other tales, that nobody believes any longer, about\nBrownies. A Brownie was a very useful creature to have in a house. He\nwas a kind of fairy-man, and he came out in the dark, when everybody had\ngone to bed, just as mice pop out at night.\n\nHe never did anyone any harm, but he sat and warmed himself at the\nkitchen fire. If any work was unfinished he did it, and made everything\ntidy that was left out of order. It is a pity there are no such bogles\nnow! If anybody offered the Brownie any payment, even if it was only a\nsilver penny or a new coat, he would take offence and go away.\n\nOther stories the old nurse had, about hidden treasures and buried gold.\nIf you believed her, there was hardly an old stone on the hillside but\nhad gold under it. The very sheep that fed upon the Eildon Hills, which\nRandal knew well, had yellow teeth because there was so much gold under\nthe grass. Randal had taken two scones, or rolls, in his pocket for\ndinner, and ridden over to the Eildon Hills. He had seen a rainbow touch\none of them, and there he hoped he would find the treasure that always\nlies at the tail of the rainbow. But he got very soon tired of digging\nfor it with his little dirk, or dagger. It blunted the dagger, and\nhe found nothing. Perhaps he had not marked quite the right place, he\nthought. But he looked at the teeth of the sheep, and they were yellow;\nso he had no doubt that there was a gold-mine under the grass, if he\ncould find it.\n\nThe old nurse knew that it was very difficult to dig up fairy gold.\nGenerally something happened just when people heard their pick-axes\nclink on the iron pot that held the treasure. A dreadful storm of\nthunder and lightning would break out; or the burn would be flooded, and\nrush down all red and roaring, sweeping away the tools and drowning the\ndigger; or a strange man, that nobody had ever seen before, would come\nup, waving his arms, and crying out that the Castle was on fire. Then\nthe people would hurry up to the Castle, and find that it was not on\nfire at all. When they returned, all the earth would be just as it was\nbefore they began, and they would give up in despair. Nobody could ever\nsee the man again that gave the alarm.\n\n\u201cWho could he be, nurse?\u201d Randal asked.\n\n\u201cJust one of the good folk, I \u2018m thinking; but it\u2019s no weel to be\nspeaking o\u2019 _them_.\u201d\n\nRandal knew that the \u201cgood folk\u201d meant the fairies. The old nurse called\nthem the good folk for fear of offending them. She would not speak\nmuch about them, except now and then, when the servants had been making\nmerry.\n\n\u201cAnd is there any treasure hidden near Fairnilee, nursie?\u201d asked little\nJean.\n\n\u201cTreasure, my bonny doo! Mair than a\u2019 the men about the toon could carry\naway frae morning till nicht. Do ye no ken the auld rhyme?--\n\n     \u2018Atween the wet ground and the dry\n     The gold of Fairnilee doth lie.\u2019\n\nAnd there\u2019s the other auld rhyme--\n\n     \u2018Between the Camp o\u2019 Rink\n        And Tweed water clear,\n     Lie nine kings\u2019 ransoms\n       For nine hundred year!\u2019\u201d\n\nRandal and Jean were very glad to hear so much gold was near them as\nwould pay nine kings\u2019 ransoms. They took their small spades and dug\nlittle holes in the Camp of Rink, which is a great old circle of\nstonework, surrounded by a deep ditch, on the top of a hill above the\nhouse. But Jean was not a very good digger, and even Randal grew tired.\nThey thought they would wait till they grew bigger, and _then_ find the\ngold.\n\n[Illustration: Chapter Five]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V._--The Good Folk_\n\n\u201cEVERYBODY knows there\u2019s fairies,\u201d said the old nurse one night when she\nwas bolder than usual. What she said we will put in English, not Scotch\nas she spoke it. \u201cBut they do not like to be called fairies. So the old\nrhyme runs:\n\n     \u2018If ye call me imp or elf,                            .\n     I warn you look well to yourself;\n     If ye call me fairy,\n     Ye \u2018ll find me quite contrary;\n     If good neighbour you call me,\n     Then good neighbour I will be;\n     But if you call me kindly sprite,\n     I \u2018ll be your friend both day and night.\u2019\n\nSo you must always call them \u2018good neighbours\u2019 or \u2018good folk,\u2019 when you\nspeak of them.\u201d\n\n\u201cDid _you_ ever see a fairy, nurse?\u201d asked Randal.\n\n\u201cNot myself, but my mother knew a woman--they called her Tibby Dickson,\nand her husband was a shepherd, and she had a bairn, as bonny a bairn as\never you saw. And one day she went to the well to draw water, and as\nshe was coming back she heard a loud scream in her house. Then her heart\nleaped, and fast she ran and flew to the cradle; and there she saw an\nawful sight--not her own bairn, but a withered imp, with hands like a\nmole\u2019s, and a face like a frog\u2019s, and a mouth from ear to ear, and two\ngreat staring eyes.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat was it?\u201d asked Jeanie, in a trembling voice.\n\n\u201cA fairy\u2019s bairn that had not thriven,\u201d said nurse; \u201cand when their\nbairns do not thrive, they just steal honest folks\u2019 children and carry\nthem away to their own country.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd where\u2019s that?\u201d said Randal.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s under the ground,\u201d said nurse, \u201cand there they have gold and\nsilver and diamonds; and there\u2019s the Queen of them all, that\u2019s as\nbeautiful as the day. She has yellow hair-down to her feet, and she\nhas blue eyes, like the sky on a fine day, and her voice like all the\nmavises singing in the spring. And she is aye dressed in green, and all\nher court in green; and she rides a white horse with golden bells on the\nbridle.\u201d\n\n\u201cI would like to go there and see her,\u201d said Randal.\n\n\u201cOh, never say that, my bairn; you never know who may hear you! And if\nyou go there, how will you come back again? and what will your mother\ndo? and Jean here, and me that\u2019s carried you many a time in weary arms\nwhen you were a babe?\u201d\n\n\u201cCan\u2019t people come back again?\u201d asked Randal.\n\n\u201cSome say \u2018Yes,\u2019 and some say \u2018No.\u2019 There was Tarn Hislop, that vanished\naway the day before all the lads and your own father went forth to that\nweary war at Flodden, and the English, for once, by guile, won the day.\nWell, Tam Hislop, when the news came that all must arm and mount and\nride, he could nowhere be found. It was as if the wind had carried him\naway. High and low they sought him, but there was his clothes and his\njack,* and his sword and his spear, but no Tam Hislop. Well, no man\nheard more of him for seven whole years, not till last year, and then\nhe came back: sore tired he looked, ay, and older than when he was lost.\nAnd I met him by the well, and I was frightened; and \u2018Tam,\u2019 I said,\n\u2018where have ye been this weary time?\u2019 \u2018I have been with them that I will\nnot speak the name-of,\u2019 says he. \u2018Ye mean the good folk,\u2019 said I. \u2018Ye\nhave said it,\u2019 says he. Then I went up to the house, with my heart in my\nmouth, and I met Simon Grieve. \u2018Simon,\u2019 I says, \u2018here\u2019s Tam Hislop come\nhome from the good folk.\u2019 \u2018I \u2018ll soon send him back to them,\u2019 says he.\nAnd he takes a great rung** and lays it about Tarn\u2019s shoulders, calling\nhim coward loon, that ran away from the fighting. And since then Tam\nhas never been seen about the place. But the Laird\u2019s man, of Gala, knows\nthem that say he was in Perth the last seven years, and not in Fairyland\nat all. But it was Fairyland he told me, and he would not lie to his own\nmother\u2019s half-brother\u2019s cousin.\u201d\n\n     * Jack, a kind of breastplate.\n\n     ** Rung, a staff.\n\nRandal did not care much for the story of Tam Hislop. A fellow who would\nlet old Simon Grieve beat him could not be worthy of the Fairy Queen.\n\nRandal was about thirteen now, a tall boy, with dark eyes, black hair,\na brown face with the red on his cheeks. He had grown up in a country\nwhere everything was magical and haunted; where fairy knights rode on\nthe leas after dark, and challenged men to battle. Every castle had its\ntale of Redcap, the sly spirit, or of the woman of the hairy hand. Every\nold mound was thought to cover hidden gold. And all was so lonely;\nthe green hills rolling between river and river, with no men on them,\nnothing but sheep, and grouse, and plover. No wonder that Randal lived\nin a kind of dream. He would lie and watch the long grass till it locked\nlike a forest, and he thought he could see elves dancing between the\ngreen grass stems, that were like fairy trees. He kept wishing that\nhe, too, might meet the Fairy Queen, and be taken into that other world\nwhere everything was beautiful.\n\n[Illustration: Chapter Six]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.--_The Wishing Well_\n\n\u201cJEAN,\u201d said Randal one midsummer day, \u201cI am going to the Wishing\nWell.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, Randal,\u201d said Jean, \u201cit is so far away!\u201d\n\n\u201cI can walk it,\u201d said Randal, \u201cand you must come, too; I want you,\nJeanie. It \u2018s not so very far.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut mother says it is wrong to go to Wishing Wells,\u201d Jean answered.\n\n\u201cWhy is it wrong?\u201d said Randal, switching at the tall foxgloves with a\nstick.\n\n\u201cOh, she says it is a wicked thing, and forbidden by the Church. People\nwho go to wish there, sacrifice to the spirits of the well; and Father\nFrancis told her that it was very wrong.\u201d\n\n\u201cFather Francis is a shaveling,\u201d said Randal. \u201cI heard Simon Grieve say\nso.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat\u2019s a shaveling, Randal?\u201d\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t know: a man that does not fight, I think. I don\u2019t care what\na shaveling says: so I mean just to go and wish, and I won\u2019t sacrifice\nanything. There can\u2019t be any harm in _that!_\u201d\n\n\u201cBut, oh Randal, you\u2019ve got your green doublet on!\u201d\n\n\u201cWell! why not?\u201d\n\n\u201cDo you not know it angers the fair--I mean the good folk,--that anyone\nshould wear green on the hill but themselves?\u201d\n\n\u201cI cannot help it,\u201d said Randal. \u201cIf I go in and change my doublet, they\nwill ask what I do that for. I \u2018ll chance it, green or grey, and wish my\nwish for all that.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd what are you going to wish?\u201d\n\n\u201cI \u2018m going to wish to meet the Fairy Queen! Just think how beautiful\nshe must be! dressed all in green, with gold bells on her bridle, and\nriding a white horse shod with gold! I think I see her galloping through\nthe woods and out across the hill, over the heather.\u2019\n\n\u201cBut you will go away with her, and never see me any more,\u201d said Jean.\n\n\u201cNo, I won\u2019t; or if I do, I \u2018ll come back, with such a horse, and a\nsword with a gold handle. I\u2019m going to the Wishing Well. Come on!\u201d\n\nJean did not like to say \u201cNo,\u201d and off they went.\n\nRandal and Jean started without taking anything with them to eat. They\nwere afraid to go back to the house for food. Randal said they would be\nsure to find something somewhere. The Wishing Well was on the top of a\nhill between Yarrow and Tweed. So they took off their shoes, and waded\nthe Tweed at the shallowest part, and then they walked up the green\ngrassy bank on the other side, till they came to the burn of Peel. Here\nthey passed the old square tower of Peel, and the shepherd dogs came out\nand barked at them. Randal threw a stone at them, and they ran away with\ntheir tails between their legs.\n\n[Illustration: Page 265]\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t you think we had better go into Peel, and get some bannocks to\neat on the way, Randal?\u201d said Jean.\n\nBut Randal said he was not hungry; and, besides, the people at Peel\nwould tell the Fairnilee people where they had gone.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ll _wish_ for things to eat when we get to the Wishing Well,\u201d said\nRandal. \u201cAll sorts of good things--cold venison pasty, and everything\nyou like.\u201d\n\nSo they began climbing the hill, and they followed the Peel burn. It ran\nin and out, winding this way and that, and when they did get to the\ntop of the hill, Jean was very tired and very hungry. And she was very\ndisappointed. For she expected to see some wonderful new country at her\nfeet, and there was only a low strip of sunburnt grass and heather, and\nthen another hill-top! So Jean sat down, and the hot sun blazed on her,\nand the flies buzzed about her and tormented her.\n\n\u201cCome on, Jean,\u201d said Randal; \u201cit must be over the next hill!\u201d\n\nSo poor Jean got up and followed him, but he walked far too fast for\nher. When she reached the crest of the next hill, she found a great\ncairn, or pile of grey stones; and beneath her lay, far, far below, a\ndeep valley covered with woods, and a stream running through it that she\nhad never seen before.\n\nThat stream was the Yarrow.\n\nRandal was nowhere in sight, and she did not know where to look for the\nWishing Well. If she had walked straight forward through the trees she\nwould have come to it; but she was so tired, and so hungry, and so hot,\nthat she sat down at the foot of the cairn and cried as if her heart\nwould break.\n\nThen she fell asleep.\n\nWhen Jean woke, it was as dark as it ever is on a midsummer night in\nScotland.\n\nIt was a soft, cloudy night; not a clear night with a silver sky.\n\nJeanie heard a loud roaring close to her, and the red light of a great\nfire was in her sleepy eyes.\n\nIn the firelight she saw strange black beasts, with horns, plunging and\nleaping and bellowing, and dark figures rushing about the flames. It was\nthe beasts that made the roaring. They were bounding about close to the\nfire, and sometimes in it, and were all mixed in the smoke.\n\nJeanie was dreadfully frightened, too frightened to scream.\n\nPresently she heard the voices of men shouting on the hill below her.\nThe shouts and the barking of dogs came nearer and nearer.\n\nThen a dog ran up to her, and licked her face, and jumped about her.\n\n[Illustration: Page 267]\n\nIt was her own sheepdog, _Yarrow_.\n\nHe ran back to the men who were following him, and came again with one\nof them.\n\nIt was old Simon Grieve, very tired, and so much out of breath that he\ncould scarcely speak.\n\nJean was very glad to see him, and not frightened any longer.\n\n\u201cOh, Jeanie, my doo\u2019,\u201d said Simon, \u201cwhere hae ye been? A muckle gliff ye\nhae gien us, and a weary spiel up the weary braes.\u201d\n\nJean told him all about it: how she had come with Randal to see the\nWishing Well, and how she had lost him, and fallen asleep.\n\n\u201cAnd sic a nicht for you bairns to wander on the hill,\u201d said Simon.\n\u201cIt\u2019s the nicht o\u2019 St. John, when the guid folk hae power. And there\u2019s\na\u2019 the lads burning the Bel fires, and driving the nowt* through them:\nnae less will serve them. Sic a nicht!\u201d\n\n     * Nowt, cattle.\n\nThis was the cause of the fire Jean saw, and of the noise of the cattle.\nOn midsummer\u2019s night the country people used to light these fires, and\ndrive the cattle through them. It was an old, old custom come down from\nheathen times.\n\nNow the other men from Fairnilee had gathered round Jean. Lady Ker had\nsent them out to look for Randal and her on the hills. They had heard\nfrom the good wife at Peel that the children had gone up the burn, and\n_Yarrow_ had tracked them till Jean was found.\n\n[Illustration: Chapter Seven]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.--_Where is Randal?_\n\nJEAN was found, but where was Randal? She told the men who had come out\nto look for her, that Randal had gone on to look for the Wishing Well.\nSo they rolled her up in a big shepherd\u2019s plaid, and two of them carried\nJean home in the plaid, while all the rest, with lighted torches in\ntheir hands, went to look for Randal through the wood.\n\nJean was so tired that she fell asleep again in her plaid before they\nreached Fairnilee. She was wakened by the men shouting as they drew near\nthe house, to show that they were coming home. Lady Ker was waiting at\nthe gate, and the old nurse ran down the grassy path to meet them.\n\n\u201cWhere\u2019s my bairn?\u201d she cried as soon as she was within call.\n\nThe men said, \u201cHere \u2018s Mistress Jean, and Randal will be here soon;\nthey have gone to look for him.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhere are they looking?\u201d cried nurse.\n\n\u201cJust about the Wishing Well.\u201d\n\nThe nurse gave a scream, and hobbled back to Lady Ker.\n\n\u201cMa bairn\u2019s tint!\u201d* she cried, \u201cma bairn\u2019s tint! They \u2018ll find him\nnever. The good folk have stolen him away from that weary Wishing Well!\u201d\n\n     * Tint, lost.\n\n\u201cHush, nurse,\u201d said Lady Ker, \u201cdo not frighten Jean.\u201d\n\nShe spoke to the men, who had no doubt that Randal would soon be found\nand brought home.\n\nSo Jean was put to bed, where she forgot all her troubles; and Lady Ker\nwaited, waited, all night, till the grey light began to come in, about\ntwo in the morning.\n\nLady Ker kept very still and quiet, telling her beads, and praying. But\nthe old nurse would never be still, but was always wandering out, down\nto the river\u2019s edge, listening for the shouts of the shepherds coming\nhome. Then she would come back again, and moan and wring her hands,\ncrying for \u201cher bairn.\u201d\n\nAbout six o\u2019clock, when it was broad daylight and all the birds were\nsinging, the men returned from the hill.\n\nBut Randal did not come with them.\n\nThen the old nurse set up a great cry, as the country people do over the\nbed of someone who has just died.\n\nLady Ker sent her away, and called Simon Grieve to her own room.\n\n\u201cYou have not found the boy yet?\u201d she said, very stately and pale.\n\u201cHe must have wandered over into Yarrow; perhaps he has gone as far\nas Newark, and passed the night at the castle, or with the shepherd at\nFoulshiels.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, my Lady,\u201d said Simon Grieve, \u201csome o\u2019 the men went over to Newark,\nand some to Foulshiels, and other some down to Sir John Murray\u2019s at\nPhiliphaugh; but there\u2019s never a word o\u2019 Randal in a\u2019 the country-side.\u201d\n\n\u201cDid you find no trace of him?\u201d said Lady Ker, sitting down suddenly in\nthe great armchair.\n\n\u201cWe went first through the wood, my Lady, by the path to the Wishing\nWell. And he had been there, for the whip he carried in his hand was\nlying on the grass. And we found _this_.\u201d\n\nHe put his hand in his pouch, and brought out a little silver crucifix,\nthat Randal used always to wear round his neck on a chain.\n\n\u201cThis was lying on the grass beside the Wishing Well, my Lady--\u201d\n\nThen he stopped, for Lady Ker had swooned away. She was worn out with\nwatching and with anxiety about Randal.\n\nSimon went and called the maids, and they brought water and wine, and\nsoon Lady Ker came back to herself, with the little silver crucifix in\nher hand.\n\nThe old nurse was crying, and making a great noise.\n\n\u201cThe good folk have taken ma bairn,\u201d she said, \u201cthis nicht o\u2019 a\u2019 the\nnichts in the year, when the fairy folk--preserve us frae them!---have\npower. But they could nae take the blessed rood o\u2019 grace; it was beyond\ntheir strength. If gipsies, or robber folk frae the Debatable Land, had\ncarried away the bairn, they would hae taken him, cross and a\u2019. But the\nguid folk have gotten him, and Randal Ker will never, never mair come\nhame to bonny Fairnilee.\u201d\n\nWhat the old nurse said was what everybody thought. Even Simon Grieve\nshook his head, and did not like it.\n\nBut Lady Ker did not give up hope. She sent horsemen through all the\ncountry-side: up Tweed to the Crook, and to Talla; up Yarrow, past\nCatslack Tower, and on to the Loch of Saint Mary; up Ettrick to\nThirlestane and Buccleugh, and over to Gala, and to Branxholme in\nTeviotdale; and even to Hermitage Castle, far away by Liddel water.\n\nThey rode far and rode fast, and at every cottage and every tower they\nasked \u201chad anyone seen a boy in green?\u201d But nobody had seen Randal\nthrough all the country-side. Only a shepherd lad, on Foulshiels hill,\nhad heard bells ringing in the night, and a sound of laughter go past\nhim, like a breeze of wind over the heather.\n\nDays went by, and all the country, was out to look for Randal. Down\nin Yetholme they sought him, among the gipsies; and across the Eden\nin merry Carlisle; and through the Land Debatable, where the robber\nArmstrongs and Grahames lived; and far down Tweed, past Melrose, and up\nJed water, far into the Cheviot hills.\n\nBut there never came any word of Randal. He had vanished as if the earth\nhad opened and swallowed him. Father Francis came from Melrose Abbey,\nand prayed with Lady Ker, and gave her all the comfort he could. He\nshook his head when he heard of the Wishing Well, but he said that no\nspirit of earth or air could have power for ever over a Christian soul.\nBut, even when he spoke, he remembered that, once in seven years, the\nfairy folk have to pay a dreadful tax, one of themselves, to the King of\na terrible country of Darkness; and what if they had stolen Randal, to\npay the tax with _him!_\n\nThis was what troubled good Father Francis, though, like a wise man,\nhe said nothing about it, and even put the thought away out of his own\nmind.\n\nBut you may be sure that the old nurse had thought of this tax on the\nfairies too, and that _she_ did not hold her peace about it, but spoke\nto everyone that would listen to her, and would have spoken to the\nmistress if she had been allowed. But when she tried to begin, Lady Ker\ntold her that she had put her own trust in Heaven, and in the Saints.\nAnd she gave the nurse such a look when she said that, \u201cif ever Jean\nheard of this, she would send nurse away from Fairnilee, out of the\ncountry,\u201d that the old woman was afraid, and was quiet.\n\nAs for poor Jean, she was perhaps the most unhappy of them all. She\nthought to herself, if she had refused to go with Randal to the Wishing\nWell, and had run in and told Lady Ker, then Randal would never have\nstarted to find the Wishing Well. And she put herself in great danger,\nas she fancied, to find him. She wandered alone on the hills, seeking\nall the places that were believed to be haunted by fairies.\n\nAt every Fairy Knowe, as the country people called the little round\ngreen knolls in the midst of the heather, Jean would stoop her ear to\nthe ground, trying to hear the voices of the fairies within. For it\nwas believed that you might hear the sound of their speech, and the\ntrampling of their horses, and the shouts of the fairy children. But no\nsound came, except the song of the burn flowing by, and the hum of\ngnats in the air, and the _gock, gock_, the cry of the grouse, when you\nfrighten him in the heather.\n\nThen Jeanie would try another way of meeting the fairies, and finding\nRandal. She would walk nine times round a Fairy Knowe, beginning from\nthe left side, because then it was fancied that the hill-side would\nopen, like a door, and show a path into Fairyland. But the hill-side\nnever opened, and she never saw a single fairy; not even old Whuppity\nStoorie sit with her spinning-wheel in a green glen, spinning grass into\ngold, and singing her fairy song:--\n\n     \u201cI once was young and fair,\n     My eyes were bright and blue,\n     As if the sun shone through,\n     And golden was my hair.\n\n     \u201cDown to my feet it rolled\n     Ruddy and ripe like corn,\n     Upon an autumn morn,\n     In heavy waves of gold.\n\n     \u201cNow am I grey and old,\n     And so I sit and spin,\n     With trembling hand and thin,\n     This metal bright and cold.\n\n     \u201cI would give all the gain,\n     These heaps of wealth untold\n     Of hard and glittering gold,\n     Could I be young again!\u201d\n\n[Illustration: Chapter Eight]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.--_The Ill Years_\n\nSO autumn came, and all the hill-sides were golden with the heather; and\nthe red coral berries of the rowan trees hung from the boughs, and\nwere wet with the spray of the waterfalls in the burns. And days grew\nshorter, and winter came with snow, but Randal never came back to\nFairnilee. Season after season passed, and year after year. Lady Ker\u2019s\nhair grew white like snow, and her face thin and pale--for she\nfasted often, as was the rule of her Church; all this was before the\nReformation. And she slept little, praying half the night for Randal\u2019s\nsake. And she went on pilgrimages to many shrines of the Saints: to St.\nBoswell and St. Rule\u2019s, hard by the great Cathedral of St. Andrew\u2019s\non the sea. Nay, she went across the Border as far as the Abbey of St.\nAlban\u2019s, and even to St. Thomas\u2019s shrine of Canterbury, taking Jean\nwith her. Many a weary mile they rode over hill and dale, and many an\nadventure they had, and ran many dangers from robbers, and soldiers\ndisbanded from the wars.\n\nBut at last they had to come back to Fairnilee; and a sad place it was,\nand silent without the sound of Randal\u2019s voice in the hall, and the\nnoise of his hunting-horn in the woods. None of the people wore mourning\nfor him, though they mourned in their hearts. For to put on black would\nlook as if they had given up all hope. Perhaps most of them thought they\nwould never see him again, but Jeanie was not one who despaired.\n\nThe years that had turned Lady Ker\u2019s hair white, had made Jean a tall,\nslim lass--\u201cvery bonny,\u201d everyone said; and the country people called\nher the Flower of Tweed. The Yarrow folk had their Flower of Yarrow,\nand why not the folk of Tweedside? It was now six years since Randal\nhad been lost, and Jeanie was grown a young woman, about seventeen years\nold. She had always kept a hope that if Randal was with the Fairy\nQueen he would return perhaps in the seventh year. People said on the\ncountry-side that many a man and woman had escaped out of Fairyland\nafter seven years\u2019 imprisonment there.\n\nNow the sixth year since Randal\u2019s disappearance began very badly, and\ngot worse as it went on. Just when spring should have been beginning, in\nthe end of February, there came the most dreadful snowstorm. It blew and\nsnowed, and blew again, and the snow was as fine as the dust on a road\nin summer. The strongest shepherds could not hold their own against the\ntempest, and were \u201csmoored\u201d (or smothered) in the waste. The flocks\nmoved down from the hill-sides, down and down, till all the sheep on a\nfarm would be gathered together in a crowd, under the shelter of a wood\nin some deep dip of the hills. The storm seemed as if it would never\ncease; for thirteen days the snow drifted and the wind blew. There was\nnothing for the sheep to eat, and if there had been hay enough, it would\nhave been impossible to carry it to them. The poor beasts bit at the\nwool on each other\u2019s backs, and so many of them died that the shepherds\nbuilt walls with the dead bodies to keep the wind and snow away from\nthose that were left alive.\n\nThere could be little work done on the farm that spring; and summer came\nin so cold and wet that the corn could not ripen, but was levelled to\nthe ground. Then autumn was rainy, and the green sheaves lay out in the\nfields, and sprouted and rotted; so that little corn was reaped, and\nlittle flour could be made that year. Then in winter, and as spring came\non, the people began to starve. They had no grain, and there were no\npotatoes in those days, and no rice; nor could corn be brought in from\nforeign countries. So men and women and children might be seen in the\nfields, with white pinched faces, gathering nettles to make soup, and\ndigging for roots that were often little better than poison. They ground\nthe bark of the fir trees, and mixed it with the little flour they\ncould get; and they ate such beasts as never are eaten except in time of\nfamine.\n\nIt is said that one very poor woman and her daughter always looked\nhealthy and plump in these dreadful times, till people began to suspect\nthem of being witches. And they were taken, and charged before the\nSheriff with living by witchcraft, and very likely they would have\nbeen burned. So they confessed that they had fed ever since the\nfamine began--on snails! But there were not snails enough for all the\ncountry-side, even if people had cared to eat them. So many men and\nwomen died, and more were very weak and ill.\n\nLady Ker spent all her money in buying food for her people. Jean and she\nlived on as little as they could, and were as careful as they could be.\nThey sold all the beautiful silver plate, except the cup that Randal\u2019s\nfather used to drink out of long ago. But almost everything else was\nsold to buy corn.\n\nSo the weary year went on, and Midsummer Night came round--the seventh\nsince the night when Randal was lost.\n\nThen Jean did what she had always meant to do. In the afternoon she\nslipped out of the house of Fairnilee, taking a little bread in a\nbasket, and saying that she, would go to see the farmer\u2019s wife at Peel,\nwhich was on the other side of Tweed. But her mind was to go to the\nWishing Well.\n\nThere she would wish for Randal back again, to help his mother in the\nevil times. And if she, too, passed away as he had passed out of sight\nand hearing, then at least she might meet him in that land where he had\nbeen carried.\n\n[Illustration: Page 281]\n\nHow strange it seemed to Jean to be doing everything over again that she\nhad done seven years before. Then she had been a little girl, and it had\nbeen hard work for her to climb up the side of the Peel burn. Now she\nwalked lightly and quickly, for she was tall and well-grown. Soon she\nreached the crest of the first hill, and remembered how she had sat down\nthere and cried, when she was a child, and how the flies had tormented\nher. They were buzzing and teasing still; for good times or bad make\nno difference to them, as long as the sun shines. Then she reached the\ncairn at the top of the next hill, and far below her lay the forest, and\ndeep within it ran Yarrow, glittering like silver.\n\n[Illustration: Page 282]\n\nJean paused a few moments, and then struck into a green path which\nled through the wood. The path wound beneath dark pines; their topmost\nbranches, were red in the evening light, but the shade was black beneath\nthem. Soon the path reached a little grassy glade, and there among cold,\nwet grasses was the Wishing Well. It was almost hidden by the grass, and\nlooked very black, and cool, and deep. A tiny trickle of water flowed\nout of it, flowed down to join the Yarrow. The trees about it had scraps\nof rags and other things pinned to them, offerings made by the country\npeople to the spirits of the well.\n\n[Illustration: Chapter Nine]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.--_The White Roses_\n\nJEANIE sat down beside the well. She wished her three wishes: to see\nRandal, to win him back from Fairyland, and to help the people in\nthe famine. Then she knelt on the grass, and looked down into the\nwell-water. At first she saw nothing but the smooth black water, with\nlittle waves trembling in it. Then the water began to grow bright\nwithin, as if the sun was shining far, far below. Then it grew as clear\nas crystal, and she saw through it, like a glass, into a new country--a\nbeautiful country with a wide green plain, and in the midst of the plain\na great castle, with golden flags floating from the tops of all the\ntowers. Then she heard a curious whispering noise that thrilled and\nmurmured, as if the music of all the trees that the wind blows through\nthe world were in her ears, as if the noise of all the waves of every\nsea, and the rustling of heather-bells on every hill, and the singing\nof all birds were sounding, low and sweet, far, far away. Then she saw\na great company of knights and ladies, dressed in green, ride up to the\ncastle; and one knight rode apart from the rest, on a milk-white steed.\nThey all went into the castle gates; but this knight rode slowly and\nsadly behind the others, with his head bowed on his breast.\n\nThen the musical sounds were still, and the castle and the plain seemed\nto wave in the water. Next they quite vanished, and the well grew dim,\nand then grew dark and black and smooth as it had been before. Still\nshe looked, and the little well bubbled up with sparkling foam, and so\nbecame still again, like a mirror, till Jeanie could see her own face\nin it, and beside her face came the reflection of another face, a young\nman\u2019s, dark, and sad, and beautiful. The lips smiled at her, and then\nJeanie knew it was Randal. She thought he must be looking over her\nshoulder, and she leaped up with a cry, and glanced round.\n\nBut she was all alone, and the wood about her was empty and silent. The\nlight had gone out of the sky, which was pale like silver, and overhead\nshe saw the evening star.\n\nThen Jeanie thought all was over. She had seen Randal as if it had been\nin a glass, and she hardly knew him: he was so much older, and his face\nwas so sad. She sighed, and turned to go away over the hills, back, to\nFairnilee.\n\nBut her feet did not seem to carry her the way she wanted to go. It\nseemed as if something within her were moving her in a kind of dream.\nShe felt herself going on through the forest, she did not know where.\nDeeper into the wood she went, and now it grew so dark that she saw\nscarce anything; only she felt the fragrance of briar roses, and it\nseemed to her that she was guided towards these roses. Then she knew\nthere was a hand in her hand, though she saw nobody, and the hand seemed\nto lead her on. And she came to an open place in the forest, and there\nthe silver light fell clear from the sky, and she saw a great shadowy\nrose tree, covered with white wild roses.\n\nThe hand was still in her hand, and Jeanie began to wish for nothing so\nmuch in the world as to gather some of these roses. She put out her hand\nand she plucked one, and there before her stood a strange creature--a\ndwarf, dressed in yellow and red, with a very angry face.\n\n\u201cWho are you,\u201d he cried, \u201cthat pluck my roses without my will?\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd who are _you?_\u201d said Jeanie, trembling, \u201cand what right have you\non the hills of this world?\u201d\n\nThen she made the holy sign of the cross, and the face of the elf grew\nblack, and the light went out of the sky.\n\nShe only saw the faint glimmer of the white flowers, and a kind of\nshadow standing where the dwarf stood.\n\n\u201cI bid you tell me,\u201d said Jeanie, \u201cwhether you are a Christian man, or\na spirit that dreads the holy sign,\u201d and she crossed him again.\n\nNow all grew dark as the darkest winter\u2019s night. The air was warm and\ndeadly still, and heavy with the scent of the fairy flowers.\n\nIn the blackness and the silence, Jeanie made the sacred sign for the\nthird time. Then a clear fresh wind blew on her face, and the forest\nboughs were shaken, and the silver light grew and gained on the\ndarkness, and she began to see a shape standing where the dwarf had\nstood. It was far taller than the dwarf and the light grew and grew,\nand a star looked down out of the night, and Jean saw Randal standing by\nher. And she kissed him, and he kissed her, and he put his hand in hers,\nand they went out of the wood together. They came to the crest of the\nhill and the cairn. Far below them they saw the Tweed shining through\nan opening among the trees, and the lights in the farm of Peel, and\nthey heard the nightbirds crying, and the bells of the sheep ringing\nmusically as they wandered through the fragrant heather on the hills.\n\n[Illustration: Page 287]\n\n[Illustration: Chapter Ten]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.--_Out of fairyland_\n\nYOU may fancy, if you can, what joy there was in Fairnilee when Randal\ncame home. They quite forgot the hunger and the hard times, and the\nold nurse laughed and cried over her bairn that had grown into a tall,\nstrong young man. And to Lady Ker it was all one as if her husband had\ncome again, as he was when first she knew him long ago; for Randal had\nhis face, and his eyes, and the very sound of his voice. They could\nhardly believe he was not a spirit, and they clasped his hands, and hung\non his neck, and could not keep their eyes off him. This was the end of\nall their sorrow, and it was as if Randal had come back from the dead;\nso that no people in the world were ever so happy as they were next day,\nwhen the sun shone down on the Tweed and the green trees that rustle in\nthe wind round Fairnilee. But in the evening, when the old nurse was out\nof the way, Randal sat between his mother and Jean, and they each held\nhis hands, as if they could not let him go, for fear he should vanish\naway from them again. And they would turn round anxiously if anything\nstirred, for fear it should be the two white deer that sometimes were\nsaid to come for people escaped from Fairyland, and then these people\nmust rise and follow them, and never return any more. But the white deer\nnever came for Randal.\n\n[Illustration: Page 290]\n\nSo he told them all his adventures, and all that had happened to him\nsince that midsummer night, seven long years ago.\n\nIt had been with him as it was with Jean He had gone to the Wishing\nWell, and wished to see the Fairy Queen and Fairyland. And he had seen\nthe beautiful castle in the well, and a beautiful woman\u2019s face had\nfloated up to meet his on the water. Then he had gathered the white\nroses, and then he heard a great sound of horses\u2019 feet, and of bells\njingling, and a lady rode up, the very lady he had seen in the well.\nShe had a white horse, and she was dressed in green, and she beckoned\nto Randal to mount on her horse, with her before him on the pillion. And\nthe bells on the bridle rang, and the horse flew faster than the wind.\n\n[Illustration: Page 291]\n\nSo they rode and rode through the summer night, and they came to a\ndesert place, and living lands were left far behind. Then the Fairy\nQueen showed him three paths, one steep and narrow, and beset with\nbriars and thorns: that was the road to goodness and happiness, but it\nwas little trodden or marked with the feet of people that had come and\ngone.\n\nAnd there was a wide smooth road that went through fields of lilies, and\nthat was the path of easy living and pleasure.\n\nThe third path wound about the wild hillside, through ferns and heather,\nand that was the way to Elfland, and that way they rode. And still\nthey rode through a country of dark night, and they crossed great black\nrivers, and they saw neither sun nor moon, but they heard the roaring\nof the sea. From that country they came into the light, and into the\nbeautiful garden that lies round the castle of the Fairy Queen. There\nthey lived in a noble company of gallant knights and fair ladies. All\nseemed very mirthful, and they rode, and hunted, and danced; and it was\nnever dark night, nor broad daylight, but like early summer dawn before\nthe sun has risen.\n\nThere Randal said that he had quite forgotten his mother and Jean, and\nthe world where he was born, and Fairnilee.\n\nBut one day he happened to see a beautiful golden bottle of a strange\nshape, all set with diamonds, and he opened it. There was in it a\nsweet-smelling water, as clear as crystal, and he poured it into his\nhand, and passed his hand over his eyes. Now this water had the power to\ndestroy the \u201cglamour\u201d in Fairyland, and make people see it as it really\nwas. And when Randal touched his eyes with it, lo, everything was\nchanged in a moment. He saw that nothing was what it had seemed. The\ngold vanished from the embroidered curtains, the light grew dim and\nwretched like a misty winter day.\n\n[Illustration: Page 293]\n\nThe Fairy Queen, that had seemed so happy and beautiful in her bright\ndress, was a weary, pale woman in black, with a melancholy face and\nmelancholy eyes. She looked as if she had been there for thousands of\nyears, always longing for the sunlight and the earth, and the wind and\nrain. There were sleepy poppies twisted in her hair, instead of a golden\ncrown. And the knights and ladies were changed. They looked but half\nalive; and some, in place of their gay green robes, were dressed in\nrusty mail, pierced with spears and stained with blood. And some were in\nburial robes of white, and some in dresses torn or dripping with water,\nor marked with the burning of fire. All were dressed strangely in some\nancient fashion; their weapons were old-fashioned, too, unlike any that\nRandal had ever seen on earth. And their festivals were not of dainty\nmeats, but of cold, tasteless flesh, and of beans, and pulse, and such\nthings as the old heathens, before the coming of the Gospel, used to\noffer to the dead. It was dreadful to see them at such feasts, and\ndancing, and riding, and pretending to be merry with hollow faces and\nunhappy eyes.\n\nAnd Randal wearied of Fairyland, which now that he saw it clearly looked\nlike a great unending stretch of sand and barren grassy country, beside\na grey sea where there was no tide. All the woods were of black cypress\ntrees and poplar, and a wind from the sea drove a sea-mist through them,\nwhite and cold, and it blew through the open courts of the fairy castle.\n\nSo Randal longed more and more for the old earth he had left, and the\nchanges of summer and autumn? and the streams of Tweed, and the hills,\nand his friends. Then the voice of Jeanie had come down to him, sounding\nfrom far away. And he was sent up by the Fairy Queen in a fairy form,\nas a hideous dwarf, to frighten her away from the white roses in the\nenchanted forest.\n\nBut her goodness and her courage had saved him, for he was a christened\nknight, and not a man of the fairy world. And he had taken his own form\nagain beneath her hand, when she signed him with the Cross, and here he\nwas, safe and happy, at home at Fairnilee.\n\n[Illustration: Chapter Eleven]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.--_The Fairy Bottle_\n\nWE soon grow used to the greatest changes, and almost forget the things\nthat we were accustomed to before. In a day or two, Randal had nearly\nforgotten what a dull life he had lived in Fairyland, after he had\ntouched his eyes with the strange water in the fairy bottle. He\nremembered the long, grey sands, and the cold mist, and the white faces\nof the strange people, and the gloomy queen, no more than you remember\nthe dream you dreamed a week ago. But he did notice that Fairnilee was\nnot the happy place it had been before he went away. Here, too, the\nfaces were pinched and white, and the people looked hungry. And he\nmissed many things that he remembered: the silver cups, and plates, and\ntankards. And the dinners were not like what they had been, but only\na little thin soup, and some oatmeal cakes, and trout taken from the\nTweed. The beef and ale of old times were not to be found, even in the\nhouses of the richer people.\n\nVery soon Randal heard all about the famine; you may be sure the old\nnurse was ready to tell him all the saddest stories.\n\n\u201cFull many a place in evil case Where joy was wont afore, oh! Wi\u2019 Humes\nthat dwell in Leader braes, And Scotts that dwell in Yarrow!\u201d\n\nAnd the old woman would croon her old prophecies, and tell them how\nThomas the Rhymer, that lived in Ercildoune, had foretold all this. And\nshe would wish they could find these hidden treasures that the rhymes\nwere full of, and that maybe were lying--who knew?--quite near them on\ntheir own lands.\n\n\u201cWhere is the Gold of Fairnilee?\u201d she would cry; \u201cand, oh, Randal! can\nyou no dig for it, and find it, and buy corn out of England for the poor\nfolk that are dying at your doors?\n\n     \u2018Atween the wet ground and the dry\n     The Gold o\u2019 Fairnilee doth lie.\u2019\n\nThere it is, with the sun never glinting on it; there it may bide till\nthe Judgment-day, and no man the better for it.\n\n     \u2018Between the Camp o\u2019 Rink\n     And Tweed water clear,\n     Lie nine kings\u2019 ransoms\n     For nine hundred year.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cI doubt it\u2019s fairy gold, nurse,\u201d said Randal, \u201cand would all turn black\nwhen it saw the sun. It would just be like this bottle, the only thing I\nbrought with me out of Fairyland.\u201d\n\nThen Randal put his hand in his velvet pouch, and brought out a curious\nsmall bottle.* It was shaped like this,\n\n[Illustration: Page 298]\n\nand was made of something that none of them had ever seen before. It was\nblack, and you could see the light through it, and there were green and\nyellow spots and streaks on it.\n\n     * In bottles like this, the old Romans used to keep their\n     tears for their dead friends.\n\n\u201cThat ugly bottle looked like gold and diamonds when I found it in\nFairyland,\u201d said Randal, \u201cand the water in it smelled as sweet as\nroses. But when I touched my eyes with it, a drop that ran into my mouth\nwas as salt as the sea, and immediately everything changed: the gold\nbottle became this glass thing, and the fairies became like folk dead,\nand the sky grew grey, and all turned waste and ugly. That\u2019s the way\nwith fairy gold, nurse; and if you found it, even, it would all be dry\nleaves and black bits of coal before the sun set.\u201d\n\n\u201cMaybe so, and maybe no,\u201d said the old nurse. \u201cThe Gold o\u2019 Fairnilee may\nno be fairy gold, but just wealth o\u2019 this world that folk buried\nhere lang syne. But noo, Randal, ma bairn, I maun gang out and see ma\nsister\u2019s son\u2019s dochter, that\u2019s lying sair sick o\u2019 the kincough* at Rink,\nand take her some of the physic that I gae you and Jean when you were\nbairns.\u201d\n\n     * Kincough, whooping cough.\n\nSo the old nurse went out, and Randal and Jean began to be sorry for\nthe child she was going to visit. For they remembered the taste of\nthe physic that the old nurse made by boiling the bark of elder-tree\nbranches; and I remember it too, for it was the very nastiest thing that\never was tasted, and did nobody any good after all.\n\nThen Randal and Jean walked out, strolling along without much noticing\nwhere they went, and talking about the pleasant days when they were\nchildren.\n\n[Illustration: Chapter Twelve]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.--_At the Catrail_\n\nTHEY had climbed up the slope of a hill, and they came to a broad old\nditch, beneath the shade of a wood of pine trees. Below them was a wide\nmarsh, all yellow with marsh flowers, and above them was a steep slope\nmade of stones. Now the dry ditch, where they sat down on the grass,\nlooking towards the Tweed, with their backs to the hill, was called the\n_Catrail_. It ran all through that country, and must have been made by\nmen very long ago. Nobody knows who made it, nor why. They did not know\nin Randal\u2019s time, and they do not know now. They do not even know what\nthe name _Catrail_ means, but that is what it has always been called.\nThe steep slope of stone above them was named the Camp of Rink; it is a\nround place, like a ring, and no doubt it was built by the old Britons,\nwhen they fought against the Romans, many hundreds of years ago. The\nstones of which it is built are so large that we cannot tell how men\nmoved them. But it is a very pleasant, happy place on a warm summer day,\nlike the day when Randal and Jean sat there, with the daisies at their\nfeet, and the wild doves cooing above their heads, and the rabbits\nrunning in and out among the ferns.\n\nJean and Randal talked about this and that, chiefly of how some money\ncould be got to buy corn and cattle for the people. Randal was in\nfavour of crossing the Border at night, and driving away cattle from the\nEnglish side, according to the usual custom.\n\n\u201cEvery day I expect to see a pair of spurs in a dish for all our\ndinner,\u201d said Randal.\n\nThat was the sign the lady of the house in the Forest used to give her\nmen, when all the beef was done, and more had to be got by fighting.\n\nBut Jeanie would not hear of Randal taking spear and jack, and putting\nhimself in danger by fighting the English. They were her own people\nafter all, though she could not remember them and the days before she\nwas carried out of England by Simon Grieve.\n\n\u201cThen,\u201d said Randal, \u201cam I to go back to Fairyland, and fetch more gold\nlike this ugly thing?\u201d and he felt in his pocket for the fairy bottle.\n\nBut it was not in his pocket.\n\n\u201cWhat have I done with my fairy treasure?\u201d cried Randal, jumping up.\nThen he stood still quite suddenly, as if he saw something strange.\n\nHe touched Jean on the shoulder, making a sign to her not to speak.\n\nJean rose quietly, and looked where Randal pointed, and this was what\nshe saw.\n\nShe looked over a corner of the old grassy ditch, just where the marsh\nand the yellow flowers came nearest to it.\n\nHere there stood three tall grey stones, each about as high as a man.\nBetween them, with her back to the single stone, and between the two\nothers facing Randal and Jean, the old nurse was kneeling.\n\nIf she had looked up, she could hardly have seen Randal and Jean, for\nthey were within the ditch, and only their eyes were on the level of the\nrampart.\n\nBesides, she did not look up; she was groping in the breast of her dress\nfor something, and her eyes were on the ground.\n\n\u201cWhat can the old woman be doing?\u201d whispered Randal. \u201cWhy, she has got\nmy fairy bottle in her hand!\u201d\n\nThen he remembered how he had shown her the bottle, and how she had gone\nout without giving it back to him.\n\nJean and he watched, and kept very quiet.\n\nThey saw the old nurse, still kneeling, take the stopper out of the\nblack strange bottle, and turn the open mouth gently on her hand. Then\nshe carefully put in the stopper, and rubbed her eyes with the palm of\nher hand. Then she crawled along in their direction, very slowly, as if\nshe were looking for something in the grass.\n\nThen she stopped, still looking very closely at the grass.\n\nNext she jumped to her feet with a shrill cry, clapping her hands; and\nthen she turned, and was actually _running_ along the edge of the marsh,\ntowards Fairnilee.\n\n\u201cNurse!\u201d shouted Randal, and she stopped suddenly, in a fright, and let\nthe fairy bottle fall.\n\nIt struck on a stone, and broke to pieces with a jingling sound, and the\nfew drops of strange water in it ran away into the grass.\n\n\u201cOh, ma bairns, ma bairns, what have you made me do?\u201d cried the old\nnurse pitifully. \u201cThe fairy gift is broken, and maybe the Gold of\nFairnilee, that my eyes have looked on, will ne\u2019er be seen again.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: Chapter Thirteen]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.--_The Gold of Fairnilee_.\n\nRANDAL and Jean went to the old woman and comforted her, though they\ncould not understand what she meant. She cried and sobbed, and threw her\narms about; but, by degrees, they found out all the story. When Randal\nhad told her how all he saw in Fairyland was changed after he had\ntouched his eyes with the water from the bottle, the old woman\nremembered many tales that she had heard about some charm known to the\nfairies, which helped them to find things hidden, and to see through\nwalls and stones. Then she had got the bottle from Randal, and had\nstolen out, meaning to touch her eyes with the water, and try whether\n_that_ was the charm and whether she could find the treasure spoken of\nin the old rhymes. She went\n\n     \u201cBetween the Camp o\u2019 Rink\n     And Tweed water clear,\u201d\n\nand to the place which lay\n\n     \u201cBetween the wet land and the dry,\u201d\n\nthat is, between the marsh and the Catrail.\n\nHere she had noticed the three great Stones; which made a kind of\nchamber on the hill-side, and here she had anointed her eyes with the\nsalt water of the bottle of tears.\n\nThen she had seen through the grass, she declared, and through the upper\nsoil, and she had beheld great quantities of gold. And she was running\nwith the bottle to tell Randal, and to touch his eyes with the water\nthat he might see it also. But, out of Fairyland, the strange water only\nhad its magical power while it was still wet on the eyelashes. This the\nold nurse soon found; for she went back to the three standing stones,\nand looked and saw nothing, only grass and daisies. And the fairy bottle\nwas broken, and all the water spilt.\n\nThis was her story, and Randal did not know what to believe. But so\nmany strange things had happened to him, that one more did not seem\nimpossible. So he and Jean took the old nurse home, and made her\ncomfortable in her room, and Jean put her to bed, and got her a little\nwine and an oat-cake.\n\nThen Randal very quietly locked the door outside, and put the key in his\npocket. It would have been of no use to tell the old nurse to be quiet\nabout what she thought she had seen.\n\nBy this time it was late and growing dark. But that night there would be\na moon.\n\nAfter supper, of which there was very little, Lady Ker went to bed. But\nRandal and Jean slipped out into the moonlight. They took a sack with\nthem, and Randal carried a pickaxe and a spade. They walked quickly to\nthe three great stones, and waited for a while to hear if all was quiet.\nThen Jean threw a white cloak round her, and stole about the edges of\nthe camp and the wood. She knew that if any wandering man came by, he\nwould not stay long where such a figure was walking. The night was cool,\nthe dew lay on the deep fern; there was a sweet smell from the grass and\nfrom the pine wood.\n\nIn the meantime, Randal was digging a long trench with his pickaxe,\nabove the place where the old woman had knelt, as far as he could\nremember it.\n\nHe worked very hard, and when he was in the trench up to his knees, his\npickaxe struck against a stone. He dug round it with the spade, and\ncame to a layer of black burnt ashes of bones. Beneath these, which he\nscraped away, was the large flat stone on which his pick had struck. It\nwas a wide slab of red sandstone, and Randal soon saw that it was the\nlid of a great stone coffin, such as the ploughshare sometimes strikes\nagainst when men are ploughing the fields in the Border country.\n\nRandal had seen these before, when he was a boy, and he knew that there\nwas never much in them, except ashes and one or two rough pots of burnt\nclay.\n\nHe was much disappointed.\n\nIt had seemed as if he was really coming to something, and, behold, it\nwas only an old stone coffin!\n\nHowever, he worked on till he had cleared the whole of the stone\ncoffin-lid. It was a very large stone chest, and must have been made,\nRandal thought, for the body of a very big man.\n\nWith the point of his pickaxe he raised the lid.\n\nIn the moonlight he saw something of a strange shape.\n\nHe put down his hand, and pulled it out.\n\nIt was an image, in metal, about a foot high, and represented a\nbeautiful woman, with wings on her shoulders, sitting on a wheel.\n\nRandal had never seen an image like this; but in an old book, which\nbelonged to the Monks of Melrose, he had seen, when he was a boy, a\npicture of such a woman.\n\nThe Monks had told him that she was Fortune, with her swift wings that\ncarry her from one person to another, as luck changes, and with her\nwheel that she turns with the turning of chance in the world.\n\nThe image was very heavy. Randal rubbed some of the dirt and red clay\noff, and found that the metal was yellow. He cut it with his knife; it\nwas soft. He cleaned a piece, which shone bright and unrusted in the\nmoonlight, and touched it with his tongue. Then he had no doubt any\nmore. _The image was gold!_\n\n[Illustration: Page 308]\n\nRandal knew now that the old nurse had not been mistaken. With the help\nof the fairy water she had seen _The Gold of Fairnilee_. He called very\nsoftly to Jeanie, who came glimmering in her white robes through the\nwood, looking herself like a fairy. He put the image in her hand, and\nset his finger on his lips to show that she must not speak.\n\nThen he went back to the great stone coffin, and began to grope in\nit with his hands. There was much earth in it that had slowly sifted\nthrough during the many years that it, had been buried. But there was\nalso a great round bowl of metal and a square box.\n\nRandal got out the bowl first. It was covered with a green rust, and had\na lid; in short, it was a large ancient kettle, such as soldiers use in\ncamp. Randal got the lid off, and, behold, it was all full of very\nancient gold coins, not Greek nor Roman, but like such in use in Briton\nbefore Julius Caesar came.\n\nThe box was of iron. On the lid, in the moonshine, Jeanie could read the\nletters S. P. Q. R., but she did not know what they meant. The box had\nbeen locked, and chained, and clamped with iron bars. But all was so\nrusty that the bars were easily broken, and the lid torn off.\n\n[Illustration: Page 309]\n\nThen the moon shone on bars of gold, and on great plates and dishes of\ngold and silver, marked with letters, and with what Randal thought\nwere crests. Many of the cups were studded with red and green and blue\nstones. And there were beautiful plates and dishes, purple, gold, and\ngreen; and one of these fell, and broke into a thousand pieces, for it\nwas of some strange kind of glass. There were three gold sword-hilts,\ncarved wonderfully into the figures of strange beasts with wings, and\nheads like lions.\n\nRandal and Jean looked at it and marvelled, and Jean sang in a low,\nsweet voice:\n\n     \u201cBetween the Camp o\u2019 Rink\n     And Tweed water clear,\n     Lie nine kings\u2019 ransoms\n     For nine hundred year.\u201d *\n\nNobody ever saw so much treasure in all broad Scotland.\n\nJean and Randal passed the rest of the night in hiding what they had\nfound. Part they hid in the secret chamber of Fairnilee, of which only\nJean and Lady Ker and Randal knew the secret. The rest they stowed away\nin various places. Then Randal filled the earth into the trench, and\ncast wood on the place, and set fire to the wood, so that next day there\nwas nothing there but ashes and charred earth.\n\nYou will not need to be told what Randal did, now that he had treasure\nin plenty. Some he sold in France, to the king, Henry II., and some in\nRome, to the Pope; and with the money which they gave him he bought corn\nand cattle in England, enough to feed all his neighbours, and stock the\nfarms, and sow the fields for next year. And Fairnilee became a very\nrich and fortunate house, for Randal married Jean, and soon their\nchildren were playing on the banks of the Tweed, and rolling down the\ngrassy slope to the river, to bathe on hot days. And the old nurse lived\nlong and happy among her new bairns, and often she told them how it was\n_she_ who really found the Gold of Fairnilee.\n\n[Illustration: Page 311]\n\nYou may wonder what the gold was, and how it came there? Probably Father\nFrancis, the good Melrose Monk, was right. He said that the iron box and\nthe gold image of Fortune, and the kettle full of coins, had belonged\nto some regiment of the Roman army: the kettle and the coins, they must\nhave taken from the Britons; the box and all the plate were their\nown, and brought from Italy. Then they, in their turn, must have been\ndefeated by some of the fierce tribes beyond the Roman wall, and\nmust have lost all their treasure. That must have been buried by the\nvictorious enemy; and _they_, again, must have been driven from their\nstrong camp at Rink, either by some foes from the north, or by a new\nRoman army from the south. So all the gold lay at Fairnilee for many\nhundred years, never quite forgotten, as the old rhyme showed, but never\nfound till it was discovered, in their sore need, by the old nurse and\nRandal and Jean.\n\nAs for Randal and Jean, they lived to be old, and died on one day, and\nthey are buried at Dryburgh in one tomb, and a green tree grows over\nthem; and the Tweed goes murmuring past their grave, and past the grave\nof Sir Walter Scott.\n\nTHE END.","title":"The Gold Of Fairnilee","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":14557}