296 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE.

 

CHAPTER XI.

[he Fairy Bottle.

Ww soon grow used to the greatest
y changes, and almost forget the things
a that we were accustomed to before.
In a day or two, Randal had nearly
; forgotten what a dull life he had lived
in Fairyland, after he had touched
his eyes with the strange water in the fairy
bottle. He remembered the long, grey sands,
and the cold mist, and the white faces of the
strange people, and the gloomy queen, no more
‘than you remember the dream you dreamed a
week ago. But he did notice that Fairnilee
was not the happy place it had been before he
went away. Here, too, the faces were pinched
and white, and the people looked hungry. And
he missed many things that he remembered:
the silver cups, and plates, and tankards. And
the dinners were not like what they had been,
but only a little thin soup, and some oatmeal
cakes, and trout taken from the Tweed. The
beef and ale of old times were not to be found,
even in the houses of the richer people.
Very soon Randal heard all about the famine;