THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 257

 

axes clink. on the iron pot that held the
treasure. A dreadful storm of thunder and
lightning would break out; or the burn would
be flooded, and rush down all red and roaring,
sweeping away the tools and drowning the
digger; or a strange man, that nobody had
ever seen before, would come up, waving his
arms, and crying out that the Castle was on
fire. Then the people would hurry up to the
Castle, and find that it was not on fire at all.
When they returned, all the earth would be
just as it was before they began, and they
would give up in despair. Nobody could ever
see the man again that gave the alarm.

“Who could he be, nurse ?”’ Randal asked.

‘Just one of the good folk, I’m thinking;
but it’s no weel to be speaking o’ them.”

Randal knew that the “good folk”? meant
the fairies. The old nurse called them the
good folk for fear of offending them. She
would not speak much about them, except now
and then, when the servants had been making
merry.

‘And is there any treasure hidden near
Fairnilee, nursie?” asked little Jean.

“Treasure, my bonny doo! Mair than a’
the men about the toon could carry away
frae morning till nicht. Do ye no ken the
auld rhyme ?>—

‘ Atween the wet ground and the dry
The gold of Fairnilee doth lie.’