-THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 259

 

46

CHAPTER V.

The Good Folk.

the old nurse one night when she was
ep bolder than usual. What she said
% we will put in English, not Scotch
: as she spoke it. ‘But they do not

like to be called fairies. So the old
rhyme runs:

Pe esas knows there’s fairies,’’ said

‘If ye call me imp or elf,
I warn you look well to yourself;
If ye call me fairy,
Ye’ll find me quite contrary ;
If good neighbour you call me,
Then good neighbour I will be;
But if you call me kindly sprite,
I’ll be your friend both day and night.’

So you must always call them ‘good neigh-
bours’ or ‘good folk,’ when you speak of

them.”

“Did you ever see a fairy, nurse?” asked

Randal.
“Not myself, but my mother knew a woman

—they called her Tibby Dickson, and her hus-

band was a shepherd, and she had a bairn, as
bonny a bairn as ever you saw. And one day