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-f^r-^y

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-.^1 ^ ^^^-

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PRONTISPIECE.

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ALICE LEARMONT;

OB,

A MOTHER'S LOVE.

AUTHOR OF *<JOHN HALIFAX, OBNTLEMAN."

e^^JJ J^y^O^C*^ */<^^2>tc^ [c /^tc-^^ <J-oA,)''J^

WITH ILLU8TBATION8 BT JAMES QODWUT.

BOSTON:

MAYHEW & BAKER, 208 WASHINGTON ST.

1859.

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iiif^s;

MY GODCHILD ALICE,

WITH TENDER WISHES AND FUTURE HOPES.

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ALICE LEARMONT.

*HH^

CHAPTER I.

^^ I WONDEB at je. Mistress Thomas Learmont.
It's no canny to do sic a thing,"

" What mean ye, my gudemither ? " wearily
answered the person addressed — a woman,
young and gentle looking. Her figure was
wrapped in a coarse mantle of Lowland plaid,
and her head-dress was a humbly-fashioned imi-
tation of that we see in the likenesses of Queen
Mary Stuart. Still, fair womanhood transcends
all quaintness of costume, and Mistress Thomas
Learmont was very comely to behold.

" Gudemither's a coarse word ; ye ought to
say ' Dame Learmont ' to your husband's mith-
er," stiflBy observed the ancient gentlewoman.
" But I was gaun to speak to ye anent your
wark there."

!• (5)

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6 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

" Aweel ! " softly said the younger lady — a
lady in form and nature, though possibly not
quite " a lady born." As she spoke, the color
came into her face, and she looked with eyes
wherein shone a heavenly light on her handi-
work — the last crowning handiwork of her
mother-joy. She had been banishing the cob-'
webs and dust from an old oaken cradle, and
hiding its worm-eaten holes with white curtains
tied with green.

"Ance mair, I wonder at ye," sharply re-
peated Dame Learmont.

The poor young creature looked troubled.
"I wish ye'd tell me your mind, my leddy.
I'm but a puir peasant lassie, and dinna ken a'
ye ken."

" I said that when my son married ye. But
ye needna greet, Marion — let byganes be by-
ganes," added the old lady, growing more
pacified. " It'll a' come richt when I hae the
bonnie bairn in my arms. And that minds me
o' what I was gaun to say. Ye foolish lassie, I
marvel ye daur put on the wee cradle sic braws
as these."

" What's wrang, gudemither ? "

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A mother's love. 7

^' It's the green, Marion, the green," answered
Dame Learmont, in a mysterious voice. " Wad
ye put ae thing that's green near your bairn,
and you a Grahame ? " *

"I am no a Grahame now," said the young
wife, with a gentle smile.

" But there's the old blude in ye still ; ye
canna change that — mair's the pity," added
the mother-in-law. "And if it were not sae,
do ye no ken the blude o' whilk comes your
husband ? "

" Na, na," sighed the young woman, absently;
and her ear was bent intently to catch every
footfall that might reach the dilapidated cham-
ber where they sat.

" Your husband, Marion Grahame, comes frae
ane that nae mortal grave bauds this day. Did
ye never hear o' True Thomas — Thomas Lear-
mont — Thomas the Rhymer of Ercildoun ? "

" Gude save us ! " muttered Marion.

" Him that wonned into — the land ye ken o'f
— for seven lang years, and c^hne ba.ck ; then

* Green, the fairies' color, is always fatal to be worn, especially
by the Grahames.

t It is counted unlucky to mention the fairies or Fairyland by
name.

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8 ' ALICE LEABMONT, OB

was sent for by the gude folk, and never seen
mair. Frae him, after many generations, came
his namesake, Thomas Learmont, your bairn's
father. And yet ye daur to tie the cradle wi'
green ! ''

The old woman advanced, and attempted with
her feeble hands to undo the ill-omened ribbons,
when a shadow passing the window — for it was
twilight — made young Mistress Learmont start
and scream.

" Ye're a foolish lassie, flichted wi' ony thing.
It's only Daft Simmie o' the hill at his sangs.
Hear till him."

And the old woman, whose superstition
seemed only to make her more strong and
fearless — even as in these days confessed ghost-
believers are often bolder than spiritual sceptics,
who deny because they inwardly tremble to ad-
mit — the old woman grasped her daughter-in-
law's arm, and made her sit quiet, listening to
the wild but not unmusical boyish voice, sing-
ing fragments of a border ballad.

** High upon Hielands and laigh upon Tay,
' Bonnie George Campbell rade out on a day.

He saddled, he bridled, and gallant rade he,
And hame cam his gude horse — but never cam he ! **

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A mother's love. 9

" 0, gudemither ! " cried the young wife at
the latter ominous words ; and once more she
listened for footsteps, or horse's tramp.

" The gloaming's unco dark," Marion whis-
pered ; " the three tops o' Eildon Hill look like
Isna my husband lang o'

" Haud your tongue, Mistress Thomas ; ye're
no fit for a Border wife. My son sail come
and gang as it pleases him."

"Aweel, aweel," again patiently sighed the
young creature, and played with the ribbons of
the yet empty cradle, until the voice of Daft
Simmie made her start once more.

It was other verses of the same ballad, sung
in shrill tones just under the window.

** Out cam his mither dear, gxieting fa' sair.
Out cam his bonnie bride, reiving her hair, —
The meadow lies green, and the com is unshorn, ~
But bonnie George Campbell will never return.

<* He saddled, he bridled, and gallant rade he,
A plume in his helmet, a sword at his knee ;
But hame cam his saddle, all bluidy to see.
And hame cam his gude horse — but never cam he ! "

Hardly had ceased the song, which in the
gathering darkness sounded almost like an el-

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dricli scream, when, as if in strange coincidence,
the clatter of a horse's hoofs came nearer and
nearer.

" It's himsel, it's himsel ! " cried the young
wife, as she leant out of the window, beneath
which the animal apparently stopped.

He stopped — the good roan — the last val-
uable possession of the impoverished Learmonts,
— stopped of his own accord, for he was rider-
less!

A wild scream of despair burst from the un-
fortunate Marion, and she was carried into her
chamber insensible — ay, even to a mother's
throes.

Dame Learmont was of the ancient race of
Border-women, fearless as the men. She ut-
tered no shriek, even when she saw that her
son was missing; such things were common
enough in those days. The descendants of True
Thomas had changed from seers and rhymers
into men of warfare — Ishmaelites, whose hand
was against many, and many a hand lifted per-
petually against them. The mother guessed
what had happened : that in some sudden fray
Learmont had been thrown from his horse.

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A mother's love. 11

wounded, or — though even her bold spirit
quailed at the latter fear — dead.

" He gaed ower Eildon Hill this morn,"
mused she ; " and at noon there cam by Willie
o' the Muir, wi' Geordie Grahame, Marion's
cousin, that bears her husband nae gude will.
If they hae foughten there'll be bluid on the
roan. I'll gang an see."

She left her daughter-in-law's couch and went
near the horse, who still stood under the win- ,
dow, shivering in every limb, his mouth and
flanks white with foam. But there were on
him neither wounds nor blood; his accoutre-
ments were not disordered ; and, except for the
overwhelming terror that seemed to possess
him, there had evidently come no h^rm to the
animal. Nay, even the small burdens fastened
to his back were safe ; as well as a leathern
pouch of money that had been thrust under the
pommel of the saddle.

" Geordie Grahame or Willie Muir wadna hae
passed this by," ironically said Dame Learmont.
" It must be o' his ain will that my son stays.
Tet's that no likely, considering his puir wife in
her trouble; and this being Hogmanay nicht

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12 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

too — an eerie and awBome nicht to be abroad."
^ As the mistress spoke, some of the farm-ser-
vants trembled and looked over their shoulders,
while others examined the horse's disordered
mane and tail.

" May be, they hae been riding him, — the wee
folk. Eh, neighbors, look ye here ? " whispered
one man, showing in the good roan's mane the
knots which are called elf-locks, and are sup-
posed to be plaited by the fairies, who often have
a mind to a ride on mortal coursers.

Dame Learmont's eyes glittered as if she felt
more pride than dread in the uncanny reputa-
tion belonging to her family.

" It's likely eneuch," she said, mysteriously.
"The ^gvde neighbors^ will be abroad this
nicht, as we a' ken ; and my son Thomas bears
his great ancestor's christened name. It is
maybe nae mortal wark that keeps him sae
lang frae hame."

" Gude save us ! " " Lord hae mercy upon
us ! " cried the servants in various tones of
fright, eyeing their mistress with considerable
distrust. But though she evidently had no dis-
like to bear the credit of supernatural powers,

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A mother's LOyE. 18

still she was not disregardful of all human
means that could explain the absence of her
son. She called the farm-followers and ques-
tioned them closely, but none could give any
information.

" Ye see," the brave old lady added, driven at
last to circumstantial evidence, " nae harm can
hae befa'en him. He wasna fechting, or he wad
hae stickit close to Bed Roan. An' he hasna
been torn frae the saddle, but has lichted doun
0* his ain accord. Na, na, sirs; there was
surely ne'er a fray."

Her resolute voice was answered by an idiotic
whine behind the crowd ; and immediately after-
wards Daft Simmie broke out in one of his queer
quavering songs, —

** There were twa lads fechtin* on Eildon Hill,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hoodie craw ;
The tane the tither's bluid did spill,
Ho ! ho, says the hoodie craw."

" There's meanin' in it," whispered the ser-
vants.

"There's aye a meanin' in Daft Simmie's
sangs, and he sees sights the whilk nane ither
folk can see."

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14 AUCE LEABMONT, OB

But the stout-hearted mispress reproved them,
and, catching hold of the lad, tried to compel
him to plain speech. It was in vain ; Simmie
was either too foolish or too wise. Not another
word could be got out of him, and soon the
" gudemither " was summoned back from her
inquiries concerning her son to the more im-
minent peril of his wife.

It was just betwixt the night and the day, at
the precise hour which forms the boundary
mark of the old and new year, that the child
came into the world ; a remarkable period of
birth, being the hour at which, according to
the superstitions of many countries, the unseen
world of spiritual beings are supposed to have
most power. At any other time, the " auld
wives " might have been struck by this fact ;
but now the whole household was smitten with
such deep grief and confusion, that no one noted
so unimportant an event as the birth of a child
to the man whom they were beginning to con-
jecture had been that day murdered. Truly,
had it been a boy, the unhappy young mother
might well have christened her new-born " Berir
oni " — " the son of my sorrow." But she had

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A mother's love. 15

not even the comfort of knowing it to be a son,
bom to avenge his father ; it was, as the indig-
nant Dame Learmont expressed it, " nae lad-
bairn; just a puir, wee, skirling lassie."

It was put into the cradle, where the green
ribbons still remained; the old grandmother
was too busy and excited to heed them now.
There the poor little morsel of humanity lay ;
while Dame Learmont, now somewhat at rest
respecting her duties to mother and child, be-
gan to arrange a plan for finding out, dead or
alive, her lost son.

Marion hindered her little, for the poor girl
had never recovered her right wits. She lay in
a dreamy unconsciousness until the child began
to cry out from its little cradle. Then her poor,
white lips found speech.

" Gie me the bairn," she murmured ; " gie
me my bairn."

It was touching, the emphasis on the " my "
— the first instinct of possession. I have heard
women and mothers say, that this instinct,
dawning at such a time, was the most delicious
joy they had experienced during life.

" Gie me my bairn," again wailed the half-

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conscious Marion ; and the child was given to
her.

" Ye needna mak sic a girning and greeting
ower it," muttered the old woman, probably
embittered beyond her wont by suppressed anx-
iety concerning her son. "It's no anither
Thomas Learmont. It's only a lassie."

Marion took no heed. She lay with her
white, fluttering fingers pressed near the baby's
face, talking sleepily to herself.

" Mither, mither, are ye there ? "

" Ay, ay, lass," answered Dame Learmont ;
'but a moment's observation showed her that
iflie sick girl's thought were not with her at all.

" My mither, my ain mither," continued Mar-
ion, feebly ; " I ken ye're thinking o' me now,
•though ye're lying cauld under the mools. Ye
;are glad it's a lass-bairn; and sae am I. I'll
*call it by your ain name ; it's a bonnie name —
Alice — my bairn Alice."

There sounded something supernatural in
fthese wanderings of a bewildered mind. The
eld woman stood aside, watching with a vague
awe the countenance of her daughter-in-law,
^who^seemed talking to the air ; and that of the

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A motheb's loye. 17

new-born babe who lay staring out into vacancy,
as young infants do ; its wide-open eyes wearing
that strange look which seems as if infants saw
things which otiiers could not see.

^' It's an uncanny time ; and may be there are
uncanny things about them baith," said Dame
Learmont to herself, in a frightened whisper.
But before her fear could increase, she was
roused by the sound of many feet and voices.
She looked down into the court-yard, and there
saw the people of the farm clustered in a group
round what, by the light of their lantern,
seemed — no living man, but a drowned body !

The mother's heart, hard, yet still a mother's,
recoiled at the spectacle. She strained her fee-
ble sight ; it was well ; for now she had strength
to see that the dead man was not clad like her
son. Yet this might only be a delusion. She
had just prudence enough not to betray any
thing to the young mother, who now seemed
falling into a doze ; she took the infant away,
laid it in the cradle beside the bed, and then
went hastily out, leaving the door ajar.

Now here, my wise, anti-superstitious reader,
I must request you to pause. What I am about

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18 ALICE LEARMONT, OR

to tell, you will find quite incredible and hard
to be understood. I shall, not stop to argue
with you at all. I shall only say tliat this my
chronicle is a consistent chronicle of its kind,
the like of which, stoutly verified by the peas-
ants, may be found in Nithsdale, Galloway, and
indeed all along the Scottish Border. I do but
revivify in a more complete and connected form
the fragments of lore attested concerning a race
of beings whose peculiarities may truly be con-
sidered to belong to pre-historic annals.

Marion Learmont was lying quite still, in a
state of entire exhaustion, which, however, was
rather pleasant than otherwise, as if a lulling
spell had been cast upon her. Her eyes were
half open, and she indistinctly saw the room, —
a large ghostly chamber dimly lighted by the
wood-fire only ; for her mother-in-law had taken
away the lamp. She was certain that she was
awake, for she noticed the several bits of furni-
ture — the oaken chair, the sole remnant of
worldly gear which she herself had brought into
the family on her marriage, — the rude table
and the curtained top of her baby's cradle. She
even observed the snow lying in a thin drift

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A mother's love. 19

along the margin of the window-panes, stealing
half-melted through, forming a large round
globule of water which rested on the great Bible
that was placed on the window-sill.

Gradually the red embers smouldered into
darkness, and the shadow cast from the door
standing ajar, grew blacker and wider. All at
once she heard a buzzing, whispering, and
laughing; a noise not loud, but very sweet.
Soon the ghostly-looking shadowy corners were
full of moving light. It came from faces peep-
ing in at the door. Then a troop of little crear
tures entered one after the other, thick and fast,
until the whole room was full of them.

They seemed at first like very beautiful chil-
dren. But as Marion looked again, she saw
they were perfect little men and women, exqui-
sitely formed, and gracefully dressed in airy
robes of all colors, — especially green. The
youths were armed with quivers made of bright
adders'-skin, and arrows of reed. The maidens
had long yellow hair, fastened back from their
shining brows with combs of gold. Many, both
men and women, had their heads adorned with
the flower called fairy-cap, or with white con-

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volvuluses. Every one of them was fair to look
at, but chiefly the first who had entered, a lady
taller than the rest, who wore a crown, either
of diamonds or dew-drops ; Marion thought that
never was there a coronet so glittering, lucid,
and clear.

The tiny visitors had brought no visible torch-
.es, but somehow the whole room about them
grew light wherever they tripped. And they
tripped about every where, in the merriest, most
fantastic round, continually following the tallest
lady, who came on more softly and gravely than
the rest.

Then Marion knew that .these were elves, and
that this was the Queen of Fairies who had loved
and carried away her husband's ancestor, Thom-
as the Rhymer of Ercildoun.

It was very strange, but though she seemed
to guess all this as by a sort of intuition, she
felt not in the least afraid. The sight was so
dazzling, so delicious ; its glamour changed the
dark old chamber into a fairy palace. She her-
self, though seemingly without the power or
desire of speech, had no sense of physical or
mental pain — no grief concerning her husband

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A motheb's love. 21

— no terror for her child. She lay and listened
in a sort of spell-bound delight to the little
people, as they talked, danced, and sang, glit-
tering hither and thither like a swarm of lumi«
nous gnats.

At last the Queen of Fairies, making a large
circuit round the window to avoid the " big ha*
Bible," which lay there, — came and stood be-
side the baby's cradle.

Now, alas ! the young mother knew what her
elfin majesty was come about. But the knowl-
edge was vain ; Marion received it in her mind
without being terrified in her heart. All hu-
man feelings or affections seemed to' have grown
cold in the ecstatic delight of the fairy show.

"It's a fine bairn, and a bonnie bairn —
very ! '* said, in quite intelligible and most en-
chanting accents, the lady who had been True
Thomas's love. " The Learmouts have not
grown uglier in all these years — that is, hun-
dreds of years — we forgot that we are on earth
just now," she continued, sententiously, as as-
cending gracefully an extempore staircase obe-
diently framed of the arms and legs of fairy-
squires, she reached the top of the cradle, and

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sat down right in front of the babe's blue eyes,
— which, however, were fast closed.

" What very sleepy things mortal infants are,
my ladies! " observed her majesty. " I wonder
whether she will wake when we get her to Fai-
ryland?"

At this some slight pang of maternal dread
smote Marion's heart. She tried to cry out, but
just then the fairy-lady turned upon her her
diamond eyes, glittering and gay, which looked
as if they never had wept — could weep — or
had need to weep. Their steely brightness froze
up all the tears that were pressing under the
eyelids of the mortal mother, born a woman,
and as- a woman made to know suffering.

" Behold her," said the fairy, laughing with a
sharp, clear, bell-like mirth ; " she is afraid !
She thinks we would harm the wee thing ! Not
we ! No, Mistress Thomas Learmont (a fine
name that, but nothing like so fine as the first
man who bore it)," and the little lady heaved a
sigh, which seemed so light as to be only a
pause in her mirth. " No, Mistress Thomas,
I'll do your child no harm ; if only for the
love I bear to your husband's people, espe-

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A mother's love. 23

ciallj bis great ancestor and himself — ha,
ha!"

" Ha, ha, ha ! " laughed the fairy troop,
with a merry meaning, and pointed out of the
window. There, even through the darkness,
Marion fancied she saw the white waves of the
Tweed foaming and dashing, and the gray mists
floating almost in human shapes over the triple
summit of Eildon Hill.

" For the love I bear your husband," contin-
ued the Elf-queen, " I will even let you see your
bairn on her birth-night every year for three
years, and then once in every seveh, according
as she chooses ; — a fair bargain."

"A very fair bargain I^f* chorused the de-
lighted little people.

But nature in the mother's heart was stronger
than even the glamour that was over her.
Though unable to speak, she stretched implor-
ing hands. The blithe troop only mocked her,
havering over her bed like a swarm of bees, and
dinning her ears with their melodious songs.
Once she tried to raise herself and get nearer to
her sleeping babe, but invisible hands, soft and
cold, like those of dead children, held her back ;

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24 ALICE LEARMONT, OB

and the fairy-lady, sitting upon the top of the
cradle, laughed at her, making elfin grimaces
which sent all the rest into a titter that rung
through the room like the sound of the wind
through a cluster of waving rushes.

"It's useless, Marion Learmont; you must
just lie still and dree your weird ; and this is
not the only weird that waits ye. QuicTc —
quick — my people ! the gudewife will be back
soon."

While she spoke, the poor mother saw the
elves take up her child, who wakened at once.
The queen looked at her with her great bright
eyes, and instantly a gleam of strange intelli-
gence came into those of the hour-born babe.

" She'll do ; she's a bonnie one ; there is
not her like in all Elfland. Haste — get her
ready."

Instantly two or three motherly-looking fai-
ries, wearing respectable silken robes and
heather-bell caps, advanced, and slipping
off the child's wrappings, left it a little soft
lump of beauty, fit even for the caresses of a
fairy.

" A sweet wee pet, and fortunately not chris-

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A mother's loye. 25

tened yet ; so she shall be alU^ther ours, and
we will find her a name in Fairyland,"

But here the mother uttered what seemed to
herself a heart-piercing shriek, but which was
in fact only a low murmur of " Alice — AKce.^^

"Very well, if it so please you, my good
woman ; I am quite satisfied. My elves, call
her Alice," answered the Queen of Fairies,
bending with a grace as winning as when she
met the first Thomas Learmont under Eildon-
tree.

"Alice — Alice," chanted out all the "wee
folk," in a chorus ravishingly sweet. It was
broken by a noise far less delicious and more
mundane : the sharp clattering voice of Dame
Learmont. At the sound the light in the
chamber vanished ; there was a rustling and
murmuring, which at last ended in a faint
shout of eldrich laughter, — then silence.

The mother-in-law, coming in, found her pa-
tient in an agony of grief.

" What for do ye greet, lassie ? ye ought to
thank GU)d and sing for joy."

" My bairn ! my bairn ! "

" Ne'er fash yourself about it ; the ill-faured
8

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26 ALICE LEABMONT, OR

wean. Think o* your husband that is alive, and
Geordie Grahame deid. They twa had a sair
tussle for't, Daft Simmie says, for he saw them ;
Geordie fell intil the Tweed, and was washit up
to our door-stane. But, I doubt not, my ain
laddie's safe and awa."

*' Far awa, far awa," groaned the poor mother.
" And my bonnie bairn's gane too."

"Ye're daft or dreaming, Marion. Here's
the bit thing soun' asleep."

She rocked the cradle rather roughly, but
there was no cry or stirring from within. The
little cap lay turned facewards on the pillow :
there were the outlines of the form, carefully
wrapped up so as to resemble a sleeping infant.
But what was the grandmother's horror when
she lifted it up and found — no living child, but
a piece of wood, rudely carved into something
like humanity, and dressed in the clothes of
baby Alice !

" It's ane of Simmie's images — he has been
at his deil's wark, and stown away the bairn,"
cried the old woman, as frantically she quitted
the room, to set on foot a search for the missing
child.

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A mother's love. 27

But whether this supposition was true, or
whether, as the grief-stricken mother firmly be-
lieved, the fairies had carried away her darling,
certain it was that all search proved vain, and
neither Thomas Learmont nor little Alice could
be found.

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28 AUCE LEABMONT, OR

CHAPTER II.

White, and in long wavy wreaths, lay the
snow on Eildon Hill. The hew year was not an
hour old, and yet all about the three peaks it
was as bright as day. Many a hardy mountain
ram started in its fold, and trembled to hear the
silvery ringing of fairy bridles resounding in the
night air.

Great sport was the Fairies' Raid. On they
came — a goodly troop, flashing along the high-
roads, over the hedges, and through the ploughed
fields; on elfin nags — black, chestnut, gray —
whose hoofs left no mark on the smooth snow.
Yet what with their praneing and singing and
laughing, the fairy folk made as much noise as
a company of living horsemen. But it was like
sounds heard in a dream, that fade the instant
one awakens. And many a dreamer in Melrose
that liight heard such sounds, wondering whence
they came.

" Heigh-ho ! " said the Queen of Fairies, as she
reined in her palfrey at the spot where the triple-

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A mother's love. 29

peaked hill divides. " Heigh-ho ! for my bonnie
green wood, where I met True Thomas ! It's
all hewn down. Hardly would I know the
upper world again. Very provoking! that
people will plough and till, and turn waste
lands into meadows. They look much prettier
as they are, do they not. Counsellor Kelpie ? "

This was addressed to the water-sprite of that
name, an ugly creature, half man, half brute,
who had crept out of the shallows of the Tweed
to fawn at her majesty's feet.

" Ay, ay," he answered ; " and for my part,
if folk keep on growing so prudent and clever,
building bridges and boats, I will never get a
living soul to drown."

" Ha, ha ! " laughed the queen. " But, good
Kelpie, have you kept safe the treasure I lent
you — the youth that slew his fellow in an< evil
fray, and so fell into the fairies' power ? "

" He is safe," answered the Kelpie, ini a voice
hollow as the waters rising in a welL " He lies
in an underground cave, through which my
river oozily creeps. He will sleep there until
his wounds are healed ; and there will not even
be one wet lock in his yellow hair when you find
3*

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30 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

him resting by the streams of Fairyland. But,
queen ! if you would but have fet Kelpie
have him ! "

*' Could not, my ancient friend ! Quite im-
possible. His great ancestor is growing tire-
some now, and we want a new mortal in Fairy-
land. Besides, soon will come the seventh year,
when we must pay the teind to hell."

A low wail broke from the fairy troop at
the mention of this, the sole shadow on their
perpetual joys — the tribute of one of their
number exacted by the Arch-fiend every seven
years.

But the pause was only momentary ; for the
elfin race have an existence entirely soulless,
free from human grief, affection, or fear. Soon
again were the silver bridles ringing merrily up
the white hill-side.

" Where is my changeling ? Where is the
child ? " cried the queen, suddenly stopping.

" Here, gracious majesty ! A weary burden
it is too ; human babies are so helpless and so
fat."

And a fairy-lady toiled up, bearing before
her on a palfrey the unlucky infant, who lay

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A mother's love. 81

pale, cold, and half dead ; a weight perfectly
enormous for the elfin steed to bear.

" Kanitha, guardian of the fairy youth, your
sala'ry shall be increased to four golden rods a
year, if you do your duty by my small friend
here. What ho ! Alice, open your eyes."

The queen, dismounting, amused herself witii
poking her dainty fingers under the pale eyelids
of the mortal babe, and playing with its frozen
limbs, white as the snow on which they lay.

** Madam," observed a sage elf-lady, " it is a
fact scarce worth bringing under your high-
nesses notice, but nevertheless true — that
earthly mothers are so foolish as to pay atten-
tion to their babes — swaddling them warmly —
hugging them in their arms, and giving them
nourishment from their own breast. We never
think of such trouble in Fairyland. Neverthe-
less, unless something is done for this babe, your
majesty will be disappointed in your sport, for
the little thing will slip away in that curious
fashion which mortals call dying. It's a trick
they have."

" How very unpleasant ! " said the queen.
But she had not time for mote, when suddenly

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the chanticleer of some honest Tweedside farmer
began to crow aloud ; and far down Melrose vil-
lage appeared dim lights creeping about like
glow-worms. The world — the hard-working,
patient, much^enduring, yet happy world, was
waking again to its New Year.

" We must be gone, elves ; we must be gone ! "
Snatching wee Alice in her own regal arms, the
Queen of Fairies stamped, once, twice, thrice.
Immediately the hill-side was cloven, and a dark
gate opened itself before her. Thither she
passed with all her train. The earth closed
behind them — leaving not a trace along the
mountain heather, not a footstep in the snow.

But far — far, through the underground pas-
sage went the merry elves, up and down, along
and across ; past valleys, plains, and mountains ;
through black and thundering rivers, by smooth
lakes, and over seas. The little babe in its
deathly stupor saw nothing of this : it lay im-
movable — its eyes sealed, until at last they
opened on a green bank in Fairyland — Fairy-
land, which was like earth in its gayest aspects ;
a region of perpetual, unvaried pleasure ; a
clime where there was neither summer nor win-

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A mother's love. 38

ter ; a day which knew neither noon nor night ;
a sky in which was never seen either sun or
cloud. So live the fairy people ; an intermedi-
ate race, created for neither earth, heaven, nor
hell.

Alice Learmont came to life again there. The
little limbs stretched themselves out, the eyes
opened, and the first sound she uttered was that
with which we mortals enter into the world, and
which we must utter at intervals, until we cease
to suffer and to breathe together — a cry of pain
and anguish.

It was quite new to fairy ears. All the little
people stopped theirs, and bounded about in
disquiet ; doubtless thinking their mistress had
brought a most unpleasant element into the elfin
society. And when the unhappy changeling
rolled its heavy head about, and helplessly
stirred its fingers, they began to mock and sport
with it, as being a creation so very much infe-
rior to themselves.

"This will not do," said her elfin majesty,
with dignity ; " I had another intent in enter-
ing the door which Dame Learmont so kindly
left ajar for me. I wished a babe, new-born,

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unchristened, who might receive with our teach-
ing something of the elfin nature, and so be
content always to stay in Fairyland. For " —
and her majesty shrugged her fair round shoul-
ders, beautiful, though laden with gossamer
wing-like appendages that might have been con-
sidered unbecoming in a mortal — "for it is a
curious and altogether unaccountable fact that
these human folk are never satisfied ; and even
my True Thomas has a hankering after the
troubles of earth sometimes. As for his de-
scendant, this wee lady's father, — I vow I shall
scarcely be able to keep him a year of his own
free will."

"0! 0!" exclaimed the sympathetic elves,
in token of their wonder and indignation.

" Now, my subjects, see what I intend to do ;
we'll turn this coarse bit of humanity into a
creature something like ourselves. Behold ! "

She touched the infant's head with her scep-
tre, a silver lily, — and soon the inanimate,
meaningless features grew into the beauty of
sense and consciousness. The eyes became
quickened to distinguish objects, the lips seemed
perfecting themselves into speech. It was the

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A mother's love. 85

face of a grown person, or of a child prematurely
wise.

"Ha, ha!" laughed the elf; she seemed to
do nothing except laugh. " But we must have
a body to match."

She passed her hand down the weak, shape-
less limbs, and they expanded into delicate form.
The little girl stood upright on her feet, a tiny,
old-fashioned figure — less beautiful than the
elves, for, though fair enough, she was no fairer
than she would have been had she grown up as
Alice Learmont of Tweedside; — a miniature
woman, but, as her expression showed; gifted
with little more than the understanding of a
child.

"Well, my changeling, how do you feel?
what do you want ? "

" I'm hungry," said the little mortal.

" Bh ! she's a low-born lassie after all," cried
the Queen of Fairies, turning up her rose-leaf
of a chin ; " take her away, and feed her with
milk from the fairy cows. I must go see after
my grown mortal, my braw young Thomas Lear-
mont."

A merry life they led in Fairyland, where a

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36 AUGE LEABMONT, OB

day lengthened out to the pleasures of a year,
and a year glided past as easily and happily as a
single day. Alice Learmont was as one of them ;
sprung at once from babyhood to maturity — at
least the only maturity the fairies ever knew ;
for their existence was like that of perpetual
childhood, without its sorrows. They suflFered
not, because to feel is to suflFer, and they never
felt ; all their life was sport, and all their sport
was unreal glamour. Nevertheless, they were
merry elves, and the little child who would else
have spent its first year of babyhood sleeping on
its mother's breast, was the very cynosure of all
elfin eyes.

" So, you seem satisfied enough with yourself,
my little Princess Royal of Fairyland," said
Kanitha, the fairy pedagogue-ess; "you have
looked at your large image long enough in
that stream. Truly, you are growing quite a
coarse child of earth, and very like your moth-
er."

"What is a mother?"

" A thing, my little lady, to be all that I am
to you — in the way of feeding and rearing you.
But you will see for yourself to-morrow, for it

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A motheb's love. 37

is your birthday, and our merry mistress will
send you home for an hour."

Alice began to cry.

Now crying was an original and hereditary
accomplishment which the little mortal had, and
which was quite unknown in Fairyland. When-
ever she set up a wail — which she did in true
baby fashion — the elves immediately stopped
their ears and skipped away.

Therefore, before the changeling had screamed
for a minute, she found herself lying alone
amidst the remnants of the feast and /the musi-
cal instruments of the dancers. Even a vocal
concert that was being carried on in a large
water-lily leaf, had ceased : the performers, six
aquatic elves, and their tutor, an ancient frog,
having dived under the bulrushes, in agony at
being outdone in their own profession by a mere
amateur.

Alice lay and sobbed — it might have been
until evening ; but there is no twilight in Fairy-
land — no dawn nor close of day : all is one un-
varied brightness — a changeless song — a shad-
owless picture. . As the child lay pulling the
daisies — that as she pulled them sprouted again
4

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88 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

— trying in how musical tones she could cry,
there fell across her a tall dark shade.

Now the elves are small and have no shadow,
— therefore this stranger could not have been
of their race. And when he spoke it was not in
the speech of Fairyland, but with an accent
quite new to Alice. Yet it thrilled her with an
instinct of pleasure.

" Wherefore greet ye, Alice Learmont ? Hae
ye ony sorrow ? "

"What is sorrow? — I do not know. — Fm
crying to amuse myself," answered the little
creature, as she looked boldly up at her ques-
tioner.

He was a tall man — past middle age — of
grand and stately mien. His lips, close set,
seemed as if they rarely opened ; for it was on
them that the kisses of the Fairy Queen had left
the wondrous spell that they could utter nothing
but truth. He was the wondrous Seer — the
Prophet who never foretold falsely — the Bard
b 3 fore his age — Thomas of Ercildoun.

Many generations had passed, since, following
the mysterious hart and hind which came as his
summoners. True Thomas had vanished from

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A mother's love. 89

earth; and yet still he abode in Elfland,
with the same aspect that he had worn when
dwelling at Ercildoun and walking on Eildon
Hill.

" Did ye never hear tell o' sorrow, Alice ? Then
the Learmonts o' this day are aye happier than
in my time. But I mind that ye were a new-
born wean, just snatched frae mither's breast.
Ye'U gang back to earth the morn ! "

His voice was pensive, and the light of his
eye sad ; but Alice gambolled about, as unheed-
ing as a young fawn of the wilderness.

It was the hour when all grew quiet and lonely
in Fairyland, — for the elfin people were abroad
working their merry wiles on the midnight earth.
At that time Alice was always used to fold up
her little limbs and go to sleep like a flower, —
for only flowers slept in Elfland. Thus drooped
she, regardless of the presence of the stranger,
and indiflFerent to his anxious speech. He
watched her a long time silently, and then
tried to arouse her.

" Waken, Alice Learmont ! it's brief time that
I hae for sf)eech wi' the youngest o' my race.
Tell me, bairn, how things are in my ain

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40 AUGE LEARMONT, OB

countrie ? Bins the Tweed clear as ever, and
does the sun glint as red oVer bonnie Mel-
rose ? "

He sighed, but Alice only laughed. " I know
little about it, old man ; will you leave me to

" Sleep ? '^ said he ; " sleep ? when ye are gaun
hame to your mither, and your father lies sae
near that ye might hear the soun' o' his breath-
ing — every breath a sigh! Lassie, lassie, look
ye here."

He lifted the child in his arms, and carried
her to a river side. There, bedded in the weeds
and rushes, lay a stalwart form, death-like, yet
alive. Water efts and bright-tinted fishes were
sporting over the large limbs ; blue forget-me-
nots grew up and twisted themselves in natural
garlands among the yellow hair. The decaying
garments were dropping oflF from the manly
chest, which yet heaved in regular suspirations.
He who thus lay, motionless yet living, bound
by elfin spell, was the younger Thomas Lear-
mont.

" I'm wae to see ye, my son," softly said the
Rhymer. " Why will ye gainsay Them that it's

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A mother's love. 41

vain to gainsay ? It's no hard to live here in
Mfland."

The youth turned and muttered, as if in
sleep, " I canna loe strange women, and I wad
fain gang hame to my wife Marion."

Thomas of Ercildoun sat down and covered
his face with his robe, in sorrow, perhaps even
in shame.

Meanwhile the sportive infant leaped from
him, and paddling among the rushes, climbed
up and sat a,stride on the form of the spell-
numbed man, crowing aloud with glee.

" Alice, the ' gude neighbors ' hae made ye
like themselves," said the old Seer mournfully.
" Else ye wadna be sae light o' heart beside
your puir father, nor when ye are sune to be
creeping to your mither's breast."

" Is that as pleasant as playing among the
flowers, or dancing in the grand halls here ? "
cried the little changeling, making queer gri-
maces, and comporting herself in all things like
a soulless elf. The Rhymer lifted his voice in
anger, when a low murmur of reproach arose
from the younger Thomas.

" It's just a puir bit wean, a twalmonth auld !
4*

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42 ALICE LEARMONT, OB

Alice, gang back to your Aiither, and then slie'U
mind o' me."

The little child paused a minute, as if some
natural instinct, awakened by her father's voice,
were at work within her. But soon she re-
lapsed into her gambols, and then, pausing to
listen, clapped her baby hands.

" They are coming, the beautiful elves. I'm
away, old man, away to my playmates."

Thomas the Rhymer looked up. There were
clouds of dust, and behind them a gallant
company — the same that in the days of his
youth he had seen pass along the greenwood
side. It was, he knew, daybreak on earth, and
the " good neighbors " were speeding back to
Fairyland. He stole away from his descendant,
in alarm and shame, lest his compassion should
work him ill ; and went forth to meet his elfin-
mistress, for whose sake he had forsaken earth
and all its ties forevermore.

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A mother's loye. 48

CHAPTER III.

I TELL ye, gudemither, it was nae dream. I
saw her, I felt her — my bonnie doo, my sweet
lassie, my ain bairn ! She was wi' me this ae
nicht — ay, i' these arms.'*

So sobbed out Marion Learmont, as she sat
in breathless sorrow beside her wheel, by which
she and her husband's mother earned their daily
bread — two desolate women.

" The Lord keep ye in your wits, dochter, and
forgie ye sic fancies ! Puir lassie, ye're a widow
and childless, like my ain sel. For it's ower
certain that your gudeman was drowned in the
Tweed; and Daft Simmie — de'il tak him! —
has stown awa' your bairn. Ye'U ne'er see
tane nor tither mair."

" Gudemither, I will," said the girl solemnly.
"There's mony a ane brought back frae the
wee folk ; and my bairn's alive, for I hae seen
her not four hours syne."

The old woman shook her head, but there was

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44 AUCE LEARMONT, OB

something so earnest in Marion's manner that
she seemed rather less incredulous.

" Tell a' the truth, lassie. It'll do nae harm.'*

" It was i' the mirk o' night, just afore moon-
rise. I waukened, sabbin' because o' a dream
I had, that my puir bairn was sleeping at my
side ; and I felt a wee bit cheek, saffc and warm,
creepiu', creepin' till me. It was a wean, gude-
mither ; it was my own Alice."

" Gude guide us ! "

" She lay here at my breast, wi' her sweet lips
close, and drank, and drank — or it seemed sae.
I tell ye, this ae nicht I hae gi'en mither's milk
to my dear bairn."

"It's a' the wark o' the Evil Ane," whispered
Dame Learmont. " But, Marion, lass, in what
form gaed she awa' ? In a flash o' fire, nae
doubt."

" Ye speak ill, gudemither," cried the young
creature, tried past her patience. " It's nae
deil's wark ; it's the wee folk that hae changed
my bairn, as I tell't ye."

The old woman shook her head with incredu-
lous pity. She did not like that any who were
not strictly of the Learmont blood should attain

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A mother's love. 45

to the honors of fairy intercourse. Still, as
Misti*ess Thomas persisted, she grew more ac-
quiescent.

" Maybe > Marion ; but then the bairn could
be naething but a wee deil — a changeling."

" I tell ye she was my ain bairn."

" The new-born wean ye scarce set e'en on ? "

" Na, na ; but a bonnie lassie, a twalmonth
anld, as she wad be this day."

" Ance mair,'* said Dame Learmont, mysteri-
ously, " ance mair I ask, how did she gang ? "

"I dinna ken," sobbed Marion. "I was
sleeping soun', and she slippit awa' frae my
arms like a snaw-wreath, and was gane. Wae's
me for my bonnie, bonnie bairn ! "

Thus sorrowed the forsaken mother, more,
perhaps, as a mother than a wife ; for certainty,
the slayer of hope is oftentimes the healer of
despair — and she, as well as the whole country
side, believed that Thomas Learmont had been
drowned in the Tweed, and washed out to sea.
But nothing ever shook Marion in her statement
that she had seen her babe carried away by
fairies. And when the strange story which, she
told on the first anniversary after her loss was

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46 AUCE LEARMONT, OB

repeated the next year and the next, people be-
gan to look on her with awe and respect, not
unmingled with a sort of dread.

On the third new year's eve the young widow

— as she believed herself to be — was sitting in
the large room which, in the days of the Lear-
monts, had been the well-furnished farmer's
kitchen. It was now desolate enough, for the
two women — relicts of the last two of the race

— were very poor. On this winter night, Dame
Learmont, sick and ailing, had been taken to
the charity of some far-away kin ; but Marion
refused to quit her home. There she sat, heavily
turning her wheel by the light of one half-
burned fagot, shivering with cold, listening to
the howling of wind and rain ; or, perhaps,

— so strangely thrilled was her mother-heart,

— listening for some other sound which she
hoped would come.

" I winna try to sleep," she said to herself.
"I'll bide, and see what this year brings."

So she sat and hearkened, but heard nothing
save the burring of her wheel and the noise of
the storm without, until, between twelve and

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A mother's love. 47

one, the hour that marked the boundary of
the old and new year. Then, in a pause of the
rain, Marion fancied she heard a faint knock at
the door.

" Come ben," she said, thinking it was a
neighbor belated, and sorrowful that the hour
of her accustomed joy had passed by.

" I cannot come ben, unless ye open to me."

It was a child's voice ; yet at once sharper and
sweeter than a child's. Could it come from
those soft, but always dumb, lips that had clung
to her bosom yearly at this time ?

Trembling, Marion tottered across the room,
and unlatched the door. There, in the bleak
night, stood a little shivering child, dressed iii
a tattered cloak, with its arms all bare, and
drenched with rain. Alas ! it did not look like
her fairy child ; but, nevertheless, the kind wo-
man drew it in.

"Puir wee lassie, what gars ye stay out sae
late ? Hae ye nae minnie at hame ? What for
do ye greet sae sair ? "

But the child made no answer, for no sooner
had she been lifted over the threshold, than her
crying was changed into a shout of laughter.

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48 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

The old rags dropped from her, and she stood
in the centre of the dark, miserable room, a
lovely three years' child, dressed in the shining
robes of Fairyland.

"It's my bairn, it's my bairn," cried the
mother, as, regardless of the wondrous glitter
and supernatural aspect of the visitor, she ran
to clasp her. But the little thing flitted from
her, and escaped.

"Are ye.no my ain? Will ye no come to
me ? " sobbed Marion in an agony. But Alice
only laughed the more, and gambolled about the
house without noticing her.

" Alice, Alice," shrieked the mother, follow-
ing.

" Ay, I'm Alice.. What do you want ? "

This was all the child said, and continued hor
play. 3nt the mother had at length heard the
sound of her daughter's voice. The little one
had even for the first time answered to the name
" Alice." It was joy enough, and too much ;
Marion Learmont fell on her knees, and, weep-
ing, thanked God.

While she murmured her prayer, the change-
ling's wild sports and laughter were moment-

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A mot::er's love. 49

arily hushed; and a faint, sweet shadow of
earth stole over the elfin brightness of her
countenance. She came up softly, and said, —

" What are you doing that for ? "

" For thankfu' joy, that He may bless ye and
save ye, my bairn," cried Marion, ceasing her
prayer in the delight of embracing her child.
But no sooner had she risen from her knees, and
tried, by tender force, to hold her darling fast,
than Alice slipped away, and laughed, and
mocked, and played strange elfish antics, until
even the mother's self was terrified. She began
to weep, not now for joy, but for very sorrow.
The changeling only jested the more.

" How dull and. queer you seem, big, dark-
looking woman of earth ! ajid what coarse
clothes you wear, and what an ugly place this
is ! Where are your pretty gold tables, and
shining'clothes, and beautiful dancing-halls ? "

" I hae nane, my bairn ; I am but a puir wo-
man that live my lane in poortith and care.
But I wadna grieve, gin I had hut ye, my
dochter ! "

And once more Marion tried to draw to her
arms the bright being who looked a child and
5

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50 ALICE LBARMONT, OR

spoke like a denizen of Fairyland. For a min-
ute or two Alice staid, seemingly amused by the
novelty of caresses.

" What are you doing to me ? " she cried.

" I hand ye fast, my darling ; and I gie ye
ae kiss, and anither — and anither," answered
the mother, fearlessly pressing her lips to \he
soft hair that was bound with the garlands and
redolent of the perfumes of Elfland. " I loe
ye, my bairn ; I loe ye ! "

" What does that mean ? "

" Do ye no ken ? Did ye never hear o' love
in Fairyland? 0, then, come hame, Alice;
come hame ! " sighed the mother, in passionate
entreaty. But perpetually the bright creature
escaped her clasp.

For an hour, which seemed a moment, yet an
age, Marion Learmont watched the gambols of
her elfin child flitting about the desolate house.
Awe-struck, she crouched beside where the fire
had been, and heard strange shouts of invisible
laughter ecljoing Alice and mocking herself.
At last, the house seemed to grow stiller, and
Marion felt a drowsy oppression creeping over
her. The changeling, too, as if tired out with

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A mother's love. 51

play like a mortal child, had laid herself down,
and suffered the mother to fold her in her
arms. Thus secure, Marion yielded to irresist-
ible weariness, and fell asleep.

In the cold dawn she woke, but it was to
stretch out her empty arms and moan. The child
was gone. All over the house was silence, sol-
itude, and gloom. Only, tinkling in her brain
was a sort of musical rhyme, which seemed like
a tune heard in dreams or just in the act of
waking, and remembered afterwards. It had
little connected meaning ; yet still the mere
words clung tenaciously to her memory, —

** Prayer o' faith is an arm o' aim ;
— Whilk will ye hae, spouse or bairn ? " ^

While, amidst her frantic lamentations, the
wife of Thomas Learmont* paused to think over
this rhyme, the first ray of daylight glinted into
the room, and rested on a relic belonging to her
husband's family. It was a portrait blackened
with smoke and age, yet now the face seemed to
grow defined, even life-like. She could have
fancied that the eyes turned towards her with a
human expression of pity and gentle sadness.

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And she shuddered, remembering what awful
tales were told of that picture — the portrait of
her husband's wondrous ancestor, Thomas the
Rhymer.

She closed her eyes in terror, nor opened
them again till, in broad daylight, she saw it
was only a picture on the wall.

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A motheb's love. 58

CHAPTER IV.

Fab up the Eildon Hill there were footmarks
in the New-year snow ; small light traces, as if
some poor barefooted child had been there wan-
dering through the night. But when the marks
reached the Eildon Tree, they vanished sud-
denly, and were no more seen.

The mortal child was once more in her home
in Fairyland. She awoke, as if out of a sleep
or trance, and found herself lying on the green-
sward, in the warm light of that sunless day.
She stretched her limbs with delight, and drank
in the ples^^ant air.

"0, this is happy," she said, and began
once more to revel among the flowers. She was
alone, but that mattered little in Elfland, where
all sought their own pleasure, and such a thing
as sympathy was unknown. It troubled her
when she saw, coming over the valley towards
her, that tall Shadow, grave and pale, who ever
met her after her yearly visits to earth.
, Alice tried to escape, and hid herself among

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54 AUCE LEARMONT, OB

the willows of the stream ; but her laugh be-
trayed her, when, looking down, she saw a brave
sight and a merry, — at least, so the elf-child
thought.

There was the figure of the spell-bound man,
the sport of all Fairyland for three years. He
had half broken from his enchantment, and
lifted himself out of the water ; his long yellow
hair and beard flowed down upon his breast,
mingled with rushes and water-reeds ; his eyes
were still closed, but his face, unlike that of a
drowned man, was bright, ruddy, and lighted
with hope. Nevertheless tears* quivered in the
heavy lashes as the child approached.

" Wherefore grieve ye, my son ? " said Thomas
the Rhymer, as with slow footsteps he followed
Alice to the river-side.

" I see wee feet near me, the feet that are yet
white frae the snaw on Eildon Hill."

" And why listen ye to ilka sound, my son ? "

" I hear a blithe voice ahint me, the voice
that spak wi' her yestreen. Marion, Marion ! "

The tones died away in a wail, as the young
Borderer's head sank upon his breast.

True Thomas gazed upon his descendant, and

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A mother's love. 55

the pensive repose of his own features was over-
shadowed. " Gin I had been like ye, a leal
lover and faithfu' spouse, I hadna wonne into
Fairyland. My puir bodie wad be lying saft
aneath the Tower o' Ereildoun, and the saints
in paradise wad keep my saul. But what's
dune is dune. . Even ye, my son, your ill deed
maun be punished ; yet for a' that, ye sail gang
back safe to bonnie Melrose, and live happy,
though in poortith and toil. For, as I hae fore-
told lang syne,

' The hare sail hirple on my hearth-stane,
There'll ne'er be a Laird o' Learmont again.' "

So spoke he with a grave sweetness, becoming
the lips that never lied. At his words, strong
shudders convulsed the frame of young Thomas
Learmont.

" 0, it's hame that I wad be ; hame, hame ! "
he moaned ; and his moaning went up to the
pale sky, and his trembling shook the glassy
waters of Elfland.

Alice crept away, as if she feared or disliked
the sight of emotion, a thing to her unknown.
She went merrily to watch beside the golden

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56 AUCE LEABAIONT, OB

gates of the enchanted vale until the fairy train
returned.

Thomas the Rhymer sat and watched too. His
harp lay at his feet — the same harp which had
echoed in the Tower of Ercildoun ; sometimes
he touched a chord or two, chanting fragments
of his own poem of " Sir Tristram," once so re-
nowned, the very name of which is now scarce
remembered along Tweedside. As he sang, his
face shone with the calm and solemn beauty of
middle age, which two centuries had left un-
changed ; only that over all was a vague sad-
ness and unrest which came at times, when
earthly memories marred the even tenor of his
elfin joys.

He had not long sat waiting, when from afar
was heard the bridle-ringing that heralded the
Queen of Fairies and her court. True Thomas
laid down his harp and smiled.

" Ah," he said, musingly ; " 'tis a sweet sound ;
I mind it weel. Blithely sung the mavis on
Huntley Bank ; the grass was saft and green,
and the gowans wat wi' dew. 0, but ye wore
a may meet for a young man's luve, my bonnie
Elfin Queen ! "

So spoke he, and beheld afar the gallant
train. In the midst of it, riding on her dapple
gray palfrey, all in her green kirtle set with
beryl-stone, he saw the lady of his love — even
as she appeared to him the first time out of the
greenwood by the hill-side ; and his grave eye
kindled like that of an aged poet at the memory
of youthful dreams.

But the fairy-lady was not given to dreaming.
Merrily rode she on, her palfrey's bells ringing
at every step ; a mingling of silver bells and
silver laughter. Lightsome and heartless was
the glitter of her eyes, and gayly swept she the
Rhymer by, like the changed goddess of many
a young bard's worship. He followed her with
aspect thoughtful indeed, but not love-lorn ; he
had no more lives of earth to peril for a mo-
ment of passion. Slow and grave was his step
as he entered the elfin ring.

"Ha! my True Thomas, hither you come
at last: is it for news of the bonnie banks
of Tweed and the gray tower of Ercildoun,
where the white owl sits beside the * hoodie
craw ' ? Would my bold Thomas wend thither
agam?"

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68 ALICE LEARMONT, OB

" Never mair, never mair ! " sighed he ; " but
I wad fain hae speech wi' ye, my lady and my
queen."

" Say on, only sigh no more ; it torments my
merry elves. ''And we have been having a
blithesome raid, up and down in the snow;
scaring and leading astray folk that have been
abroad keeping their New-year ; ha, ha !

' Lord, what fools these mortals be ! '

as sings a young English poet, whom I would
say for sure had been in Fairyland, only he
paints me so little after received tradition, and
so much out of his own fancy, that I hardly
know my own likeness. Eh, my elves! shall
we send home our ancient Rhymer, and go to
Avon's banks to steal sweet Will ? "

" Ye sport and jest, my ladye and love," said
True Thomas, sadly; "ye heed not that the
year's began — the seventh year. When its
second morn appears, ye'll see the Evil Ane
wend up that sloping road to claim the teind to
hell."

Terror — the sole terror they knew — seized
the fairy-folk ; the dances ceased, and the git-

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A mother's love. 59

terns and lyres, falling from elfin-hands, began
to wail of their own accord.

" Who fears ? " said the qneen. " Let the
teind be paid ! I have a fine stout mortal fat-
tening under kelpie's hands, in the river near.
Ha, ha ! my young Thomas Learmont will serve
my turn well.''

" Nae harm can touch the lad," answered the
Rhymer, sternly. " He has a wife at hame wha
prays for him nicht and day to Ane that here
we maunna name. I foresee that this same year
a mortal will be won away frae Elfland."

" You grow bold in speech, my knight of
old.''

" I speak wi' the lips that canna lee."

The queen looked as abashed and angry as it
was possible for a fairy to look. "I marvel,
True Thomas, that your vision extends no far-
ther, and that though you are grown old and
ill-favored with two centuries of life, you do not
see your noble self wending that fated road."

And she pointed to a downward slope black-
ening in the distance, from which all the elves
turned their eyes, for they knew it was the gate
of hell. On the other hand rose the thin cloud-

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60 ALICE LEARMONT, OB

land of Paradise ; while between both, like glis-
tening fantastic towers with fair landscapes be-
tween, was seen the land of Faery.

The Rhymer gazed around, and turned to bis
mistress. " Do ye mind, my queen, the day ye
laid my head on your knee, and showed me thae
three sights ? For your luve I wonned frae
earth, and I hae tint heaven ; but hell will ne'er
open her mouth for me. I maun bide here in
Faery foreyermair.''

"And grieve you at that. True Thomas?"
smiled the winning elf, assuming the aspect by
which she once wiled the youth away from
Huntley Bank.

" I grieve not," murmured he, while his eyes
glittered with a passion before which the mirth
of Fairyland sank spiritless and tame ; " I wad
dree it ower and ower for siccan joy."

He sank kneeling at his lady's feet, and for a
brief space thought of earth no more.

But soon there came flitting near him little
Alice, whispering, —

" There's the man with the bonnie yellow hair
moaning out, ' Harney hame ! ' and it frights my
butterflies in the meadow, my bright fishes in

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A mother's love. 61

the stream. I cannot sleep or play for listening.
Entreat our mistress to send him ' hame.' "

So True Thomas changed from elfin wooing
to entreaties for his descendant.

" 0, the trouble you mortals give me ! " cried
the Queen of Fairies. " There are too many of
you here ; you will produce quite a revolution
in our government. But for all that I cannot
let my handsome prisoner go. He began an
evil fray, and fell into the Tweed, hard fight-
ing, he and his adversary together. The tide
swept Geordie Grahame down, while I stood
by and laughed, for I knew that the other was
mine."

" But no for aye. It's lang syne, yet Marion
Learmont's saut tears fa'. She prays ; and
there's Ane that will hear. Send the young
man back to earth, my gentle elfin queen."

" Ay, and then give back my fair changeling,
too ? Impossible ! One or the other I must
keep. So lie thee down, Thie Thomas, at
my feet, and let us hearken to wee Alice's
songs."

But wee Alice, standing by, looked half-
thoughtful still. "The mani is moaning yet.
6

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62 ALICE LEARMONT, OR

Ho wearies me. Let him go back to earth, and
keep me in his stead always."

The Rhymer smiled, with the glad sense of
a poet who beholds that noblest sight — a gen-
erous deed.

" My bairn, the dear earth-blude is in ye yet ;
ye wad tine a', and win your father."

" Father," repeated the child, carelessly ; " it
is a strange word ; I know it not. And what is
earth to me ? I spent a weary night last night,
wandering there over snow and brier. I would
rather stay in Fairyland."

"But ye gaed hame, my bairn; hame to
sweet Melrose ; ye sat by the ingle-side that
was your father's ; ye crept close to your mith-
er's knee," eagerly cried Thomas of Ercildoun.

" It was a gloomy place, dark and cold.
There was a woman there, doleful to see. She
never smiled, or danced, or sung, but only wept.
It wearied me. I would rather stay in Fairy-
land."

" Then stay, my merry changeling," cried the
delighted queen. " Not an elf in my kingdom
shall live so blithely as you. By all means,
stay."

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A mother's love. 63

" For seven years, nae mair," said the Rhymer,
earnestly. " My lady and queen, ye hae me by
my ain will, for that I first sought your luve,
and not ye mine. Ay, and again I were fu'
fain to tine my saul for your beauty's sake.
But ilk either mortal man, woman, or wean, ye
may keep seven year, and nae mair."

" My True Thomas, your earth-born honesty
is very inconvenient in Fairyland. Neverthe-
less, away with the burly Border squire ; and
come, my bright Alice, and my lightsome elves,
let us to our sports again."

That night, when the lights were out in all
Melrose, and the new moon shone dimly on the
snow, — when the young Marion sat weeping by
her fireless hearth, where even the cricket's song
had ceased in the cold and silence, — there came
a step on the threshold — a voice in the darkness
— a strong, close, passionate clasp, that she felt,
yet saw not. But when the moonlight glinted
palely in, she knew the noble height, the broad,
stalwart breast, the yellow hair. It was the
dead alive — the lost found.

Yet even on that joyful night, when marvels

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64 AUOfi LEABMONT, OB

hardly seemed to be such, since love was ready
unquestiouing to receive all, many a time Mari-
on would droop tearfiil on his neck, sighing
out, —
" husband ! our bairn, our bairn ! "

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A mother's love. 65

CHAPTER V.

" Come ben, come ben, my bairnies a'," softly
cried a mother — not a young mother now, as
she stood by the ingle-side, and threw on a fresh
fagot, which merrily lighted up the dusk of the
winter night.

An old woman, bent and withered, cowered
over the blaze, and childishly watched it glitter-
ing between the joints of her skeleton fingers.

" It's a rare fire, Marion," mumbled she : " we
hae na had the like o't for mony a New-year.
Wow ! but it's unco fine ! "

" Aweel, gudemither, gin ye're content ! "
answered Mistress Learmont, half sorrowfully.
" Yet, I'se warrant it has been * muckle siller
and muckle dule, sin the day the gudeman was
awa' to serve the queen in Edinburgh. Eh !
caUants, I fear me ye'U no see your daddy this
braw New-year."

So said she to the two sturdy bare-legged lad-
dies that came from the next room, toddling to
the welcome fire. A third — the eldest appar-

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66 ALIOS LEABMONT, OB

ciitly — entered from without doors, bringing in
plenty of snow upon his shoeless feet and his
flaxen hair. For he too was a " yellow-haired
laddie," a true son of the Learmont race. He
was his father's very image ; a great fellow,
whose bulk almost belied the round, innocent
face of six years old. The other two were fat,
sun-burnt, roly-poly creatures — twins. The
last-born, a delicate looking child who could
just stand alone, and whose sole speech was the
dumb language of blue eyes, was crawling about
the floor, — making vain eflForts to get nearer to
the beautiful blaze.

They were all boys, these later blessings sent
to comfort Marion Learmont after her woes.
There never came another daughter.

Every human being must change, more or
less, in seven years. Mistress Thomas Learmont
was a douce, matronly body now. She could
chatter, and she could scold, though not often ;
for she was of a sweet nature always. But she
had to be both father and mother to her boys,
in the absence of the gudeman, whom chance
had lifted to comparative prosperity, as archer
of the guard to Queen Mary. Mere infants as

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A mother's love. 67

they were, there was their race's fierce spirit in
the lads, so that poor Marion had sore trouble
to manage them at times.

They had not been long gathered round the
fire, when a domestic storm arose.

" Hay, Habbie, what are ye yaumerin' for ?
Hand your ill tongue, Jock ! Wee Sandy, come
and tell your minnie what ails ye. 0, laddies,
laddies, what '11 1 do wi' ye a' ? "

"Why dinna ye wish the 'gude neighbors'
wad tak them, and send ye hack your ae doch-
ter ? " grumbled the old woman. " I'd gie a'
these ill-faured callants for ane bonnie lass-
bairn.*'

" Ye didna think sae ance, gudemither. Gin
ye had, maybe my puir Alice had been safe at
your knee. Now, ye'll gang to your grave, and
me too, wi' ne'er a dochter to close our e'en."

Marion sighed bitterly. Strange it seemed,
and yet was not strange, that amidst the cares
and joys which followed after, the mother never
forgot her first-born. Year by year, as Alice's
birth-night came round, she grew thoughtful,
and watched with anxiety ; but never again in
any shape, vision, or sound, did the changeling

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68 ALICE LEARMONT, OB

appear. At last a sacredness like unto death
stilled the pain of this heavy loss ; many other
children came to comfort the bereaved mother
— yet the wound was never thoroughly healed.
Constantly, when the boys were to her cold or
rough, as boys will be, she would sigh after the
one lost blessing, which, like all vanished joys,
seemed dearer than any of the rest.

She sat by the ingle ; and, rocking on her
knee the gentlest of the tribe, the little year-old
babe, whose looks sometimes reminded her of
Alice, — gave herself up to sad thoughts, which
on this New-year's Eve seemed to come thicker
and faster than ordinary.

" What for do ye greet, minnie ? " cried one
after the other of the bairns, gathering round
her ; for childhood's heart is always tender, and
the wildest boys are often the most moved at
sight of trouble.

Marion uncovered her eyes, to see Habbie
and Sandy with great thunder-drops of tears in
theirs ; while Hugh, the bold eldest, stood in an
attitude of defiance, as if ready to challenge
some invisible foe who had made his mother
weep. Even the wee thing at her lap lifted up

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A mother's love. 69

his sweet looks in troubled wonderment, and
nestled closer to her, bringing unconscious com-
fort.

" Ye're gude bairns a'," said the mother, ten-
deriy, as she caressed them by turns. " But, 0,
ye arena my Alice — my ae dochter — that I will
see nae mair ! "

The children had often heard of their sister
Alice, and had questioned about her with child-
ish awe. With them she had grown into a sort
of myth, to be thought of with grave faces, and
spoken of softly. They had even set up a kind of
rude service to her — children often have the odd-
est instinctive notions of worship. Many a tiny
bowl of milk, or rosy-cheeked apple, was left on
the " door-stane," or carried to some thicket on
Eildon Hill, or placed at four cross roads, in the
vague hope that " Sister Alice " would somehow
come and partake of it. And as, of course, the
dainty frequently vanished, they would come
home feeling sure that " Sister Alice " had in-
deed received their gift.

Now, when they heard the rare mention of
her name, they became silent and grave. Only
Hugh, who, being next eldest to the lost one,

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70 ALICE LEARMONT, OB

thought himself peculiarly privileged, took cour-
age to say, —

" Mither, diuna ye greet for Sister Alice ; and
I'll gang and speer for her ower the hale warld."

The mother shook her head.

" But I will, mither," cried the fearless boy.
" What like is she ? — When gaed she awa ? "

It was a bold question ; for Marion had feared
to tell the whole story of Alice's disappearance
to her young children, and had left their specu-
lations thereon vague and dim. But, somehow,
to-night her heart was opened and her tongue
loosed.

"Bide ye here, callants, and I'll tell ye.
What like was she ? — she was the sweetest wee
lady, jimp and sma', — wi' een like Willie's
here, but 0, sae bright ! She was ta'^n awa on
this nicht, the nicht she was born, just ten year
sinsyne. She came back ance — twice — ilka
new year, and then nae mair. — Ah, laddies, she
came nae mair ! "

" And whar is she noo, mither ? "

" She's in a braw, braw land, blithe and gay,
amang folk that it's no gude to speak o', my
bairns."

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A mother's love. 71

" Then they're no gude ava," cried Hiighie,
boldlj. " Maybe they'll gar her forget her min-
nie and us. — I'll gang and fetch them a' ! "

Marion laid her finger on her little son's lips,
and, with the other hand, was about tremblingly
to make the sign of the cross, — but stopped, re-
membering what that good man John Knox had
said, when last he preached under the shadow
of Eildon T;*ee. Scarcely had she collected her
thoughts and resolved not to fear, when through
a pause in the blast which seemed suddenly to
have risen shaking the whole dwelling, she heard
a sound that was neither wind nor storm.

" Eh ! siccan a sight ! " shouted the daring
Hughywho had rushed to the window. "Sax
braw white horses dragging a thing like a wain,
only bonnier far ; wi' sic grand folk intilt, and
mony mair ridin' ahint the lave."

" Surely, it's a coach, that fine new wain your
daddie saw. Maybe the queen herself is there.
0, bairnies, rin and hide ! "

" I'll no hide," said Hugh. " I wad like to
speak to the queen. Folk sae she's a bonnie
leddy."

Without more ado, this bold young scion of

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the humbled Learmont race unbarred the door,
and walked out. Marion trembling followed.
The coach and attendants had apparently drivea
away, for she saw them not, though she fancied
she heard the sound of retreating wheels.
There was only a faint glare, like that of invis-
ible torches, cast on the road; and there she
saw her son, escorting a brilliant little lady who
seemed neither quite a woman nor yet a child.

One frenzied hope darted through the mother's
heart, but quickly it faded when Hugh rushed in.

" Mither ! here's a bonnie wee leddy sent frae
the queen."

" Prae the queen ? wi' news o' your daddie ?
Ah ! she's kindly welcome," said the mother ;
but still she drew back in disappointment.

Hugh ran gallantly to the aid of his lovely
guest, who hesitated at the threshold.

" Come ben, my wee leddy," said he, eagerly,
apparently not in the least abashed either by
her fair presence, or by her gold and jewels and
gay robes.

" I cannot come in, unless you lift me," mur-
mured the dainty creature, in tones like a silver
bell.

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A mother's love. 73

Hugh sturdily gathered up all the strength
of his childish arms, and carried her over the
door-sill, into the very middle of the floor.
There she stood — a beautiful^ vision, making
all light about her, as though her very gar-
ments shone. But, gradually, the glitter paled
ofi*, and she seemed nothing more than a very
small, elegantly-formed lady, magnificently clad,
but with the face and manner of a child.

Despite its change, and against the utter im-
probability of the thing, the mother fancied she
knew that face. Tremblingly she advanced to
the guest.

" Wha may ye be, my sweet wee leddy ? " '

" I was not to tell my name."

" Wherefore cam ye ? "

" The queen sent me." And whatever ques-
tions were put, the only answer that could be
won from the little damsel was still the same —
" The queen sent me."

Her sudden appearance and dazzling mien
spread such an admiring awe over the little
circle that they felt no power to question her ;
but in their intercourse the little lady alto-
gether Hook the initiative.
7

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She flitted about the house, peering into every
hole and corner with most amusing pertinaci-
ty. She played with the children and pulled
them about, more with curiosity than interest ;
and at last, having fairly bewildered them all
with her beauty, her wilful ways, and her per-
petual chatter in a tongue which at first seemed
to them strange and court-like, but gradually
became intelligible and more like their own —
she called for something to eat.

It was supper time; and the mother. had
been preparing bowls of porridge, turning every
now and then, with an incomprehensible yearn-
ing, to watch the movements of their guest ; yet
evermore repelled by something in the fair crea-
ture's mien which told that her hojJes were de-
lusions, that it was impossible this could be her
Alice — her child.

" I want some food," again cried the visitor,
impatiently.

Marion got ready the children's messes. She
set out five instead of four portions, and placed
the first and largest before the stranger.

" Will ye eat wi' my bairns ? ye're dearly
welcome," said she, tenderly.

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A mother's love. 75

The little lady tasted the porridge, and threw
it aside with a gesture of disgust. " It is not
like my food ; give me some better."

It was strange, but the words and look went
like an arrow to Marion's heart.

" I haena ony better," she said, sadly. " Gin
ye come to puir folk's door, ye maun live as
puir folk live."

The little damsel laughed, more carelessly
than angrily, and with hungry looks sufiFered
Hugh to place her bowl once more within her
hand.

" Bide a wee," whispered Marion, as she was
about to begin. " My bairns, say your grace
afore meat, as ye hae been taught."

One after the other the boys — in this at
least well-lessoned — folded their hands and
said a few words of prayer. At the sound, the
new-comer began to tremble and grow pale ; at
last she set up a loud cry —

" 0, it hurts me — it hurts me ! "

" What, my sweet lassie ? "

"0, my heart — my heart!" and she began
to weep.

Hugh started up, but the mother put him

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76 ALICE LEARMONT, OR

back, and threw her arms, brown and hard with
labor, round the silken-robed child.

" Tell me, in the great Name ye ken o', wha
may ye be ? "

The girl struggled wth diflSculty to speak.
"I'm Alice — Alice Learmont; let me go back
to whence I came."

"I winna let ye gang, my ain bairn, my
dochter ! " med the mother, snatching her
close, and sobbing over her. " Come near, lad-
dies, baud her fast — fast! She's your sister
Alice."

Amazed, the children clung round ; some ad-
miring her bright clothing, , and others half-
frightened at the wild elfin beauty of her face,
for she was now smiling again.

But the mother wept still.

" Is it your ain sel', my dochter ? " cried she,
fondling the pretty creature ; who, nevertheless,
every now and then tried to escape out of her
hands. " Eh, but ye're grown a winsome lassie,
your hair sae shining, and your skin sae white !
I wadna hae kent my wee Alice, my ain dear
bairn ! "

" Indeed ! " said the little maiden, carelessly,

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A mother's love. 77

as she re-arranged her tossed hair, and smoothed
her crumpled gear, too bright and gaudy for
the touch of common mortal hands ; " was I
ever in this ugly dark place before ? "

" Do you no mind o' that ?" said the mother,
sadly. "Hae ye forgotten your ain mither?
Ye're a braw, braw leddy now, but ye were
ance a puir bit bairnie in these arms."

Alice smiled with an air of indifference, and
turned from the worn and pensive-looking
mother to the children, who, young, rosy, and
fair, seemed more like herself and her elfin
companions.

" Are these my brothers, and will they play
with me, as the little fairy-children do in the
land where I live?"

« Eh, whar is that land ? " asked bold Hugh,
the^ first who had dared to address their mag-
nificent new sister.

" I know not, but it must be a long way off,
for it's a country so much prettier than this."
And she went peering about into daa'k and
dusty corners, and curled her sweet lips in a
half-scornful indifference at every thing she
saw.

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78 ALICE LEABMONT, OR

" Do you always live here ? " said Alice,
when at last she and thQ rest had become more
sociable. "Where are your golden halls, and
your silver dining tables, and your sweet mu-
sic ? And why don't you laugh and dance —
in this way ? ''

Immediately she began to float and bound,
with an air so ravishingly graceful and joyous
that she seemed like a creature of light com-
pared with the other children, who watched her
in dumb wonder, Hugh especially.

" Is it thus ye live in your land ? Eh, but I
never seed sie a bonnie ploy ! "

"And how do you amuse yourself? " asked
Alice, with dignified condescension.
' '^ When it's simmer, I rin about the braes,
or amang the corn-rigs wi' the shearers ; i' the
mirk winter-days I baud the plough ; and then
a' the spring-time I gang wi' the bit lammies on
the hill. I'll show ye thae lammies, gin ye'U
bide wi' us, sister Alice."

She seemed amused and pleased, and her
sweet winning looks stole the very heart of the
afiectionate boy. He went boldly to his sister,
kissed her mouth, and hugged her close, saying,

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A mother's love. 79

" I'm unco glad ye're come, sister Alice ; but
gin ye hadna come o' your ain will, I wad hae
fought for ye and brought ye hame. Ye sail
never gang awa mair."

" Never gang awa mair ? " cried Alice, mim-
icking him, as she stole slyly out of his embrace,
and once more began dancing about the floor.

The children forgot their supper in watching
her, half with shy wonder, half with delight ;
so graceful, so blithe was she, so utterly free
from thought or care. But the neglected
mother sat in a corner apart, and mourned.

More than once she came to her child, and,
with piteous tenderness, looked into those blue
eyes whose brightness was never shadowed by
one cloud of regret, or emotion, or love.

" Are. ye no my Alice ? " she would say, im-
ploringly ; " and haena ye ae kiss for your ain
mither that bore ye ? Ah, lassie, what wad I
gie for ane wee wordie ! just ' inither,' — nae-
thing mair."

Alice shook her head, and laughed. "It's
a new word ; I don't understand it." And
then she went back to her sports among her
brothers.

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89 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

Merry sports they were, and with much won-
derment she sometimes paused to listen to
Hugh's harangues, very sensible for his years.

" Ye're our ae sister, and we aye liked ye
weel, though we never saw ye. Why did ye
no come hame ? Mither used to greet for ye ;
she aye loed ye aboon the lave."
. Alice turned a curious glance to her mother.
" What does loving mean ? " she asked.

Hughie w^s puzzled. At last he tried a prac-
tical illustration. He wrapped his arms round
his fairy-like sister, and kissed her with child-
ish fondness, which she did not repulse, though
she took it coldly and wonderingly.

" It means that^^ said he, " an' it means that
I'll tak tent o' ye, and I'll carry ye when ye're
wearied, and treat ye weel, and no beat ye — as
I beat Habbie and Sandy ; I'm your ain brither,
an' I loe ye, Alice dear ! "

Alice paused in her frolics, and, putting her
tiny hand among Hugh's curls, looked as if her
eyes were drinking in from his some strange
new lesson of human affection. But, turning,
she saw in a tiny mirror her own fair image ;
suddenly bursting away, she danced up to it,

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A mother's love. 81

and became absorbed by pleasure at the sight of
her glittering frock and her silver shoes.

The night wore on ; the old grandmother had
gone to her rest long ago, and knew nothing of
the strange visitant who had so fascinated the
children. But at length even they grew weary ;
while the little elfin maiden still frolicked, her
brothers dropped away one after the other, and
came, in the wearied, peevish mood that very
young children have, to take shelter by their
mother's side. Mistress Learmont soothed them,
and folded her arms round them, though, in the
troubled bewilderment of her own mind, she did
not attempt to put them to bed. Whatever she
did, or wherever she moved, her eyes never
quitted her beloved first-born, whom now she
left to her own devices, and tried to caress no
more.

Hugh was the last to leave his sister, but
even he came to the ingle-side at length, rubbing
his eyes, and looking dull and melancholy.

^^ She's no like a real lassie. She's unco' fair
and unco' gleg, but she'll no be our ain sister,"
said he, disconsolately, as he gathered himself
up on the hearth, and laid his head wearily on

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his mother's knee. The twin-laddie§ were al-
ready dropping to sleep beside her, and wee
Willie had nestled close into her bosom. Mar-
ion kissed them all round tenderly, and with
tears.

While she did so, she was aware of the
approach of her eldest child, who glided
softly into the circle. Alice's eyes were down-
cast, and there was a strange sadness in her
aspect.

" Mother I " she said, — and Marion could
have shrieked with joy at the word, — " have ye
got never a kiss for me ? "

" My bairn ! my bairn ! " she cried, but could
not rise, for the other sleeping children that
clung round her. She stretched out her hand
and drew her daughter into the circle. Slowly,
neither with impulse nor with hesitation, Alice
came. Her bright face was rather grave, and
there was a softer expression in her sparkling
eyes. She let her mother fold her close to her
breast ; and lay there quietly, though without
any caresses.

But for the mother herself, her joy was un-
utterable and without bounds. It forced itself

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A mother's love. 83

out in sobs and tears, which fell on the neck of
the fairy child. Alice recoiled.

" I do not like that ; the tears wet me. Why
do you cry ? "

" For joy, my dochter. But I winna do't gin
it grieves ye." And Marion tried to smile and
be merry, though her heart was so full that the
mirth seemed but an idle show.

Alice leaned on her breast with a quiet, con-
tented look — a look subdued almost into earth-
liness — until the night wore on, and the light
on the hearth faded. Then she drew herself
away restlessly.

" It's very dark and dull, and I'm cold,
mother."

" Come closer and I'll warm ye, my bairn ; I
hae dune that, mony a nicht, to thae wee lads,
your brithers, that were born amid poortith, and
cauld, and care."

Alice looked 'frightened^ and shivered more
and more. " Is this what they call living on
earth, mother? If I had lived here among
ye, would I have been hungry, and cold, and
dressed in ugly clothes like you and my brothers
there?"

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84 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

" I fear me, it wad hae been and will be, my
Alice ! " sighed the mother. " But we'll tend
ye close, and loe ye sae dear — 0, sae dear ! "

In vague fear, the poor woman strained her
daughter to her breast. Her coarse garments
frayed the tender skin, her look and speech were
almost rough in their passionate intensity. Yet
the deep love in her eyes would, to one who
could feel and respond to it, have atoned for
and sublimated all. But such a common-place,
every-day thing as lovCj was quite unknown in
Pairylahd.

Alice, half-frightened, half-annoyed, crept a
little way farther from her mother. She had
hardly done so, when a cock, crowing loudly
from the farm, broke upon the night's silence.
The children were all asleep; Marion herself,
despite her struggles against it, felt herself
overpowered as by a ha^y dream. Just as the
cock crew, she hear^ clearly^ rolling nearer and
nearer, the sound of wheels which had heralded
her daughter's coming. She knew instinctively
that it was the signal for Alice's being snatched
from her once more.

She could not cry out or speak ; her tongue

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A mother's love. 85

seemed bound. She only turned her implor-
ing eyes to the little elfin-maiden, and saw^ with
agonj unutterable, that the warning, to her so
dreadful, had brightened her daughter's face
with joy.

" They're coming ! I will soon be back in my
merry home. Pare you well, good mother,"
cheerfully cried Alice, as the wheels stopped,
and a brilliant light glinunered through the
black window and under the chinks of the crazy
door. " Fare you well," she repeated, as with
a sudden spring she bounded out of her mother's
desperate hold.

Marion's tongue was loosed; she uttered a
shriek like that we sometimes utter in dreams.
To herself it seemed the very rending of her
soul ; but it was in reality a mere sigh, not loud
enough to wake the in&nt who slumbered on her
knees.

She felt the little maiden turn and pat her
cheek for a moment, escaping quickly and softly,
like a bird out of the hand.

" Don't cry, mother ; it makes you look not
pretty, and it hurts me. But I can't stay here ;
I must go back to my beautiful hqme."
8

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86 AUCB LEARMONT, OR

There was a light tap at the door, which was
merely latched. Now Marion knew that the
fairies could only enter through a door left
open, or opened unto them. She tried to rise,
but could not. Then she made frantic signs to
Alice to bolt and bar the entrance, but in vain.

Another tap came ; for the daughter was
pausing to look in mingled wonder and doubt
on the agonized countenance of her mother.
A third summons, — and then, with her own
hands, the changeling opened the door.

A flood of light — a multitude of airy beings
filling the gloomy house, and Alice herself,
blithe and beautiful as any, flittering among
them all !

It was but for a moment ; — then the vision
began to fade, and the mother knew that her
child was departed. With a vehement cry she
called upon the one Name which all beings, of
whatever race, must obey.

The fairy-train paused, and Alice was left
standing on the threshold, her eyes wandering
between the lowly home within and the bril-
liant pageant without.

"What do you want with me?" she said.

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A motheb's love. 87

" Must I stay and live here in this house ? It
is so dark, so dreary. — Yet, my mother — "

She stood irresolute, looking at the little
group among whom for one hour she had lain,
encircled by caresses, and learning for the first
time that there was a sweeter thing even than
the perpetual pleasures of Elfin-land. A little,
too, she seemed moved by the despair with
which the dumb, spell-bound mother stretched
out imploring hands.

" Choose, Alice, choose,'' chanted the elves
from without, as the glitter of their invisible
torches flashed upon her, lighting up her fair
countenance and her amber hair.

She turned ; their elfi.n glamour was cast
over her, and every rising emotion of earth and
earthly tenderness was stilled.

" Farewell ! " she cried ; and without casting
one more look at the dark cottage — the little
brothers who lay sleeping where they had played
with her — the poor mother, whose dumb an-
guish was all in vain — Alice passed from the
threshold and disappeared.

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88 ALICE LEARMONT, OB

CHAPTER VL

All days and all years are alike in Fairys-
land. One after the other they glide, like waves
in a river of which the .current never changes.
And though there are among these lightsonie
beings elves young and old, save that the in-
firmities of age are unknown ; though, as vera-
cious chroniclers have asserted, they continually
marry and replenish their community with elfin
babes, — still their existence flows on in a per-
petual monotony ; and their unreal pleasures
remain always the same.

Pour winters had the snow gathered and
melted on the crest of Eildon Hill, since Alice
vanished from her mother's cottage, on that last
New-year's mom. But sununers and winters
make no count in Elfland; and it seemed to
the changeling as if she had only been gone
four days.

No extraneous power can change the eternal
laws of nature ; and, despite the will of the
Queen of Fairies^ the little stolen mortal had

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A mother's love. 69

grown up to be a maiden of fourteen years.
She was still tiny enough for an earthly damsel ;
but she walked the soft sward of Fairyland,
casting a gigantic shadow which quite alarmed
her elfin mates. Even the queen herself, who
bore the stamp of royalty as the tallest of her
race, and who in past times had actually prided
herself on being able, standing tiptoe, to gird
with her emerald girdle her earthly love, the
Knight of Ercildoun, — even the queen began
to be indignant that her young handmaiden was
an inch or two above herself, and was growing,
she strongly suspected, very nearly as fair.

" Look at her, my True Thomas," her ma-
jesty observed (for, with true royal caprice, or
from scarcity of stolen mortals, she had of late
gone back to her old love) — " Look how mun-
dane she is, far too tall and round ; and her
step is so heavy, it would crush half-a-dozen of
my pet grasshoppers. Nay, she has even got a
most unpleasant earthly gloom on her face ; as
doleful as yourself, my knight, when you begin
to dream of the old tower where the owls hoot
and the corbie builds."

True Thomas sighed.
8*

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90 ALICE LEARMONT, OR

"Would you go back to earth again?"
mocked the queen, in her pretty wilful way.
" My sister majesty on the throne of Scotland
is as fair, as love-winning, and — so you would
say — as fatal in her love as myself. 0, it was
a bonnie blaze that one night scared my elves
who dwell underneath the Calton Hill ! and
truly there is no moonlight riding over the
plain of Langsyde for the ugly corpses that lie
bleaching there! Eh, would you go back to
earth, my gallant Thomas ? "

The Rhymer's head fell on his breast. " For
me," said he, mournfully ; " for me there is nae
return. And I wadna see the black, black nicht
that's fa'ing, and maun fa', ower my dear Scot-
land. But it's after mirkest nicht that glints
the dawn. — I see't, I see't! Years on years
maun pass, and ne'er a queen's foot sail fa' on
Scottish heather. And then ane comes, — a
Leddy wi' saft sma' tread ; wearing a marriage-
ring that's dearer than her crown ; hearing
bairns' voices at hame, sweeter than a' the clav-
ers o' daft crowds. — Ah, she's the Queen for
bonnie Scotland ! "

" Hold your tongue, True Thomas," said her

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A mother's love. 91

majesty, rather unceremoniously ; " no one here
ever thinks of to-morrow ; it is only you stupid
mortals who bring the unpleasant word ^future '
into Fairyland. Look, as I said before, at your
descendant there ; see her eyes, so clouded and
grave ; can it be that despite my care the old
Learmont leaven has reached her blithe spirit ? "

The Rhymer looked. Alice was walking
slowly down the river-side, the same river which
meandered through Fairyland, rising and dis-
appearing, how or whither none could trace.
She had neared the place where the water-lilies
grew thick, and where they had once twined
their long stems round the form of the mortal
captive who lay there three years bound, afar
from sweet Melrose. Some recollection seemed
to possess the changeling, for she staid in the
same spot where, she had then staid to look at
her father. Sitting down by the bank, she
played with the water-plants, and dipped her
fingers in the stream. It went on singing over
the pebbles, with a melancholy, monotonous
flow, just like earthly rivers. Indeed, it seemed
the only earthly sound in Fairyland.

Alice listened, and slowly there came a deep,
strange pensiveness to her eyes.

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92 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

"What hear ye, Alice?" said Thomas of
Ercildoun, coining nearer; for her volatile
majesty of Elfland had suddenly descried a
lovely specimen of entomology sailing down
the river-side, and had summoned all her court
on a dragon-fly hunt ; leaving her mortal lover
to dream on the green bank alone. — "Why
hearken ye to the stream wi' sic a waefu'
heart?"

Alice looked up. " My heart ! is it so ? is this
weight on my heart what my mother called care ?
— Then, I did not understand the word ! " said
she, musingly.

" It is even sae. Were ye thinking o' your
mither ? "

" I do that sometimes, now, when I get dull
and weary. It is so weary to be always gay, —
and then I was born on earth, ^nd not in Fairy-
land."

So said she, very gently, and with an altered
tone of womanly thoughtfulness. Either the
fairies' power had grown weaker, or the mother's
prayers stronger ; but there was certainly a
change coming over the child. Having spoken,
she again bent her head to the water, listening.

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A mother's love. 93

" What hear ye ? " repeated Thomas, eagerly.

" I hear the murmur of the river, and other
sounds that it brings with it, seemingly from a
long way."

" And thae sounds are unlike atight here ?
There's weeping and wailing, and saft sighs, and
tears that fa' sweeter than kisses ? I ken them
weel ; it's the sounds of earth that float alang
wi' the earth-risen stream," cried the Rhymer,
as he stooped and laved his hands and brow*
0, bonnie river, come ye frae the Tweed ; or
frae my ain bright Leader, that rins by Ercil-
doun ? 0, sweet water, whar did ye spring, and
whither do ye flow ? "

His heart seemed bursting with these words,
but very soon his aspect grew calm, and he again
asked Alice what she heard.

"I can hear naething of eartb mysel," he
said ; " never, sin' the day I shut my ear to ilka
voice but that whilk led astray. But ye were
stown awa, a puir bairn that kent nor gude nor
ill. Listen, Alice, and tell me."

" I hear great lamenting along the river-brink
— screams of children in terror, and people
shouting about some one being drowned. And

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94 ALICB LBARMONT, OB

now there's a choking cry — ah ! I know who
jfAa^is! It's Hughie, my bonnie brother, so
kind and so brave ! I must run — I must
run!"

With an impulse quite strange and unac-
countable in Fairyland, the earth-born maiden
started off and flew along towards the source
of the river ; skimming almost like a bird over
bush and brake, through green bank and morass,
wherever the windings of the stream led. She
thought not of her companion ; she never looked
behind ; on she went, guided by the sound which
she seemed still to hear — the gasping sobs of a
drowning child.

As Alice proceeded, the face of the country
changed. The sunny plains of Elfland became
grim rocks, through which the river flowed with
angry bursts and moans. At last the thin rift
of blue overhead altogether vanished ; she found
herself in a cavern hung with oozy water-plants,
and rugged with basaltic fragments.

Alice knew she had passed from the domain
of the merry earth-elves to the gloomy abode of
the Kelpie, the water-demon, whose pleasures
were only in the working of ill. There he sat.

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A mother's LOYB. 95

the grim creature — not beautiful, like the Queen
of Fairies and her train — but foul and ugly to
behold. His face and brawny shoulders were
those of an old man, the gray, wild hair droop-
ing down like withered sedge ; but underneath,
half in and half out of the water, his form was
like that of a huge river-horse. He had a harp
of reeds beside him, upon which he played sweet
music to allure his prey ; and ever amidst his
playing, he reared, snorted, and plunged, hoarse-
ly laughing between, in a tone mockingly hu-
man.

So uncouth and fearsome a creature was he,
that the child would have crept away in terror,
but that, far hid in the darkness 9f the cave,
floating hither and thither upon the dark waters,
she saw the glitter of yellow hair. It looked
like the form of a drowned boy swaying to and
fro on the surface.

A strange emotion possessed the changeling-
maiden — a feeling stronger than the desire for
pleasure, or mirth, or sport — an emotion that
drew her out of herself and towards another.
The one night in her mother's cottage flashed
upon her like a dream, not of weariness, but of

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9b ALICE LEARMONT9 OB

sweetness. She hardlj knew what she was do-
ing, but somehow she murmured all the home-
names, scarcely noticed at the time. While so
doing, the waves stirred the face of the drowned
child, and turned it towards her. Iv was that of
the eldest and most loving of her brothers —
Hugh!

He lay, his bonnie face pale, but composed and
sweet as if safely pillowed at home, instead of
being tossed on those hungry waves. His fingers
still tightly grasped his blue bonnet and his
shepherd's staflF, as though it were in fording
some current that the Kelpie had overtaken
him. He had grown into a sturdy boy; but
the frank beauty of his mien was the same as
when Alice had twisted her fingers in his curls,
and looked for the first time in a brother's
face.

She remembered it all — and how, in the
merry games of Fairyland, she had often paused
and wished for Hughie to come and say the
sweet words, never said or thought of by the
lightsome elfin race, " Hove you.^^ She longed
to reach him, and hear them over again.

"Hughie, brother," she whispered over the

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A mother's love. 97

waves, but in vain : she dared not come nearer
the fierce Kelpie, who sat and played in dignified
gravity, never looking towards the mortal who
was invading his domains. And farther, farther
every minute, the river was drifting the helpless ^
form of the drowned boy.

Alice paused a moment ; her bare feet trem-
bled in the cold water, and among the sharp
rocks; then, acting on an impulse unknown
before, she waded in, — deeper, deeper, — until
her footing slid from her. She had never heard
of death ; yet as she felt her breath failing, some
strange, formless horror seemed to encompass
her. Nevertheless, she tried to grasp the yel-*
low hair, and to cling closer to her brother ; as
if, whatever happened, she would be safer and
better thus. Then all sensation ceased.

She woke on the greensward of Fairyland,
with Hughie tightly clasped in her arms, and
over them bending the grave coimtenance of
Thomas of Ercildounl

The seer looked from one to the other of the
children ; but Alice noticed only Hughie, who
still lay as if asleep.

" 0, wake him, wake him ! " she cried ; and
9

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a new tone of human pain thrilled through her
smooth accents of Fairyland.

" He'll waken soon, and then he must gang
far, far awa, or e'er 'tis morning on earth, and
the queen comes hame to Fairyland. Haste ye,
Alice ; kiss him ance, twice, and then bid him
farewell." I

'^ I will not let him go ; I want to keep him to
play with, — my own, own brother ! "

" An' ye wad keep him — a fair, christened
wean, in this ill place, while his mither grieves
the lee-lang day ? Ye wad gar him forget his
hame, and a' that's gude, to bide here in Elf-
land ? And when the seventh year comes
roun', and they pay the teind to hell, — lie's sae
fiit and fair, and weel-liking : 0, wae's me for
the lad ! "

This and more the Rhymer urged ; but little
did Alice heed, or at least seem to heed. She
smiled and laughed in wild elfin pleasure, as
slowly Hughie opened his eyes. But not a word
he said, except one bitter cry — " Hame — hame
— I maun gae hame."

Alice led him every where, and showed him

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A mother's love. 99

the fair landscapes and the banquet hall ; but
he took no pleasure therein.

" 0, let's gae hame," he said perpetually.
" It's a braw land, but it's no like hame. Sister
Alice, I daurna bide wi' ye."

His sister listened, and her bright face was
troubled with thought. " Must ye go, Hughie ? "
she said, now for the first time learning how
sweet it was to share a pleasure that did not
centre in herself alone ; learning, too, a little
of that pain of parting without which the happi-
ness of aflFection were as unreal as light without
shadow.

" Must ye go ? " she repeated, sadly. As she
spoke, it was already dawn in the world, and the
ringing of the fairy bridles was heard afar, be-
yond the golden gates of Elfland.

Alice grasped her brother, who now or never
must be saved to return to earth. " You will
not stay then, Hughie dear ? Ah well ! it's best
not. They're oftentimes wearisome — all the
feastings, and dances, and pleasures. Go back
to our mother, and bid her remember me."

Half sadly the little maiden spoke ; but there

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100 AUCE LEARMONT, OB

was no time to talk more, for flashing througb
the golden gates came the fairy cavalcade.

" We must be gone," said Alice. " I know
the earthward way;" and wrapping her arms
round her young brother, she drew him into a
brake of fern. She gathered a bunch of fern-
seed, which, plucked on earth at St. John's eve,
will make the wearer invisible, and set it in
Hughie's bonnet. Then she took him by the
hand, and led him secretly towards the entrance
of Fairyland. As they went out, they saw,
standing behind them with sad eyes, him who
never might pass those gates to his beloved
country — Thomas the Rhymer of Ercildoun.

" Is it far we hae to gang ? and will ye gang
wi' me, sister Alice ? " asked the boy.

" Ay," said Alice ; " as far as may be."

So these children took together their strange
journey. It was all amidst darkness ; there
was neither sun nor moon. Sometimes a pale,
weird-like auroral light glimmered above them,
showing each the other's face, dim and wan.
At other times they went through mirk ways,
seeing nothing, but hearing awful sounds, like
forests of trees soughing wildly, or waterfalls

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A mother's loyb. 101

dashing, or seas roaring, close by. Again, they
seemed to wade through deep rivers as red as
blood ; and then their feet slid along great
masses of ice, or sank in black morasses. Alice
always led the way, silent, but holding fast her
brother's hand.

Hughie went on, not in his usual daring mood,
but heavily, like a boy in a dream. At times
his feet lagged on the toilsome road, and he be-
gan to moan ; then Alice would pause and try
to teach herself those things which women of
earth learn instinctively, and have to practise
all their life — how to bear with and to com-
fort the aflBicted. It was a new lesson, but very
sweet.

On they went, over river and plain, mountain
and valley, until at last they came to a cavern
ending in a great doorway fashioned of green
stone. Through its crevices glided a pale ray,
like daylight, or like moonlight upon snow.
By this glimmer they saw indistinctly the latter
part of the way they had come ; a steep path,
rising, as it were, out of the depths of the earth.
Between them and the light were these gigantic
doors.

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102 ALICE LEABMONT, OR

Hugbie sat down before them, and wept:
" Ah, sister Alice, I will never reach hame !
I'll lay me doun and dee."

But Alice showed him a cranny in the stone,
through which came a broad beam of light, and
bade him peep through.

" Tell me, what see ye, Hughie dear ? "

''I see a long, white snaw drift, braid and
still. We're on a hill-tap, and the morn's blink-
ing out i' the east, and the cocks are crawing
afar. There's tl\e Abbey o' Melrose ! 0, sister
Alice, we're close at hame ! "

He set up a shout of joy which made the black
vault ring; and stretching his hand through
the tiny hole, gathered some of the snow, — the
blessed snow which lay upon earthly plains, — •'
and put it to his parched lips. For he was
weary and worn, poor child ! while Alice looked
as fresh and fair as she had done in the
haunts of Fairyland. But while he smiled, she
sighed.

" Yes, you will be soon at home, Hughie.
Are you glad to go ? "

"Ay, unco glad ! I'll rin doun the hill-side,
and ower the brig, and creep in at the byre, for

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the ha' door's steekit fast ; an' gin our mither
comes to milk the kyo, I'll loup intil her arms.
Then I'll ca' Habbie, and Sandy, and winsome
Willie, and we'll a' be blithe thegither. Come,
sister Alice," added he, advancing to the heavy
door ; " tirl the pin, and let's awa."

" Away, then," said Alice, sadly ; " and fare
you well, my bonnie brother that I will never
see more."

He hardly heard her, so eager was he in
looking for the invisible fastening of the door.
The moment his fingers touched it, it opened of
its own accord, wide enough to admit of the
boy's passing. He leaped through in an in-
stant.

" Come awa, quick, sister ! " cried Hugh,
stretching out his hand from the other side.

" I cannot. They stole me, an unchristened
child; I may not return to earth unless they
please. See, brother, the gates are closing, and
crushing me. Ah, hold them back ! "

For a minute the boy's fearless hands did as
she bade ; the brother and sister clung together
and kissed one another sorrowfully through the
opening that was momently diminishing be-

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104 AUCE LEABMONT, OB

tween them. Then the great green doors closed
with a hollow clang, and not a trace remained
of where they had been.

Hughie sat and wept, all alone, on the snowy
hill-side.

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CHAPTER VII.

" AwA wi' your father, my bonnie sons ; I
wadna ye suld bide at hame wi' a puir sick
doited body like mysel. Though it's wearie
wark, lyin' here my lane ; but may be it's no
foi- lang."

The words, faint but patiept, began cheerfiilly,
and ended in a half-audible murmur. Mistress
Learmont leaned back on the couch that was
made up for her near the ingle-side, and looked
fondly, yet sorrowfully, on her three tall lads,
now fast outgrowing boyhood. There were but
three, Hugh and the twins. Winsome Willie,
the youngest, had been covered up to sleep in
the green kirkyard of Melrose — one of those
lost darlings who are destined to live in house-
hold memory, endowed with the beauty of per-
petual babyhood.

The triad of brothers left, Hugh, Halbert, and
Alexander, — though from the Scottish habit of
diminutives, rarely enough did they win that
full-lettered dignity, — were near of an age and

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106 ALICE LEARMONt, OR

near of a height ; fine bold fellows, exalting the
lienors of the Learmont name through all the
country round — ay, even though they were but
plough-boys, and herd-laddies. For to that low
estate had their fortunes dwindled at last, when
Queen Mary, needing no court nor guard, pined
away in Tutbury-hold, and her archer, Thomas
Learmont, returned to his old home. The next
generation bajie fair to merge the race of the
old Knights of Ercildoun into mere tillers of the
field and keepers of flocks and herds. Dame
Learmont, now dead and gone, was the last that
ever owned that honorary title.

" It's no for lang — it's no for lang," repeated
the mother, as scarce reluctantly the lads obeyed
her and went out, leaving her with a servant
lassie. " It's sair to bide, though, while it lasts.
A twalmonth and mair I haena stirred frae this
ingle-side. It was i' the winter time, ye ken,
lass, that I fell sick ; and now the winter's here
ance mair. Eh ? what day is't, Meg ? Meg
Brydon, I say ! "

But the faint voice scarcely reached the care-
less young damsel, who stood watching the corner
of the kailyard — it might be for the sake of en-

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107

joying that pleasant sight, a red winter sunset ;
especially as the foreground object was Jock the
shepherd lad leaning against a dike and whis-
tling amain.

" Wae's me ! " sighed Mistress Learmont, as
she ceased the vain call, and sank down once
more on her uneasy pillow. " It's aye the same,
and sae 'twill be till I am laid under the mools.
Braw sons I hae, and a husband leal and kind,
but they're no like a dochter. Ah ! I mind
when I was a lassie, and had a mither o' my ain
— a puir wee wifie she was, sick and dowie, for
she had ay a dour life o' mickle wae, — I mind
how ane day, when I was sitting by her, and she
near her end, she said, ' Marion, ye hae been a
gude bairn to me, a' your days ; I ken nae what
ye're ettled to be, nor how ye'U gae through this
wearie warld ; but, Marion, your mither leaves
ye ane blessing, better than a' — May ye hae a
dochter like yoursel ! ' — But I hae nane, and
never will ! Alice, Alice, wherefore did ye
gang?"

Thus, bitterly moaning to herself over her
never-healed loss, the mother lay. Meg Bryden
had stolen out to whistling Jock, leaving the

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108 ALICE LEARMONT, OB

door a little way open. The sharp winter air
blew in upon the sick woman.

" Meg, can ye no come and hap me better ?
it's sair cauld. Ye dinna speak ; ye canna be
fashed wi' a puir sick body. 0, dear Meg, be
kind till me just for a wee whilie — I'll no
trouble ye lang. What, ye're gane ? Aweel,
it's nae wonder — I'm no your mither, lass.
But 0, gin I had my ain dochter! Alice,
Alice!"

The heart-wrung cry was suddenly stopped.
While she called, Marion saw, or fancied she
saw, looking in at the frosted window-panes,
a face, which by the dim light of fading day
seemed that of a young woman. But there
was a likeness in it that made a thriU of awe
come over her — a likeness unseen for twenty
years.

She said to herself, "It maun be that my
end is near ; and that my mither is come back
^ come frae the grave to ' tak me hame,' as she
said. Aweel, I'm ready ; I downa care to bide
langer. But 0, mither, gin I had, like ye, a
dochter to close my een! that she were
here — my bairn Alice ! "

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A mother's love. 109

While she was speaking the face had vanished ;
but with her latter words it reappeared. Sweet
it was, and tender in aspect, wearing that fair
angelic look always given by golden hair. Well
might the sick woman have mistaken it for a
vision from the land of the blessed ! But as its
eyes met hers, they took a human look, almost
amounting to grief. Marion began to doubt.

" It's like her, yet it's no hersel. — It's nae
spirit, for it stands dark atween me and the
sky. Is it my bairn, that I wished might bear
my mither's likeness ? Is it my bairn that I
haena seen for seven years ? Alice, Alice ! "

" I am here, mother," was the answer, heard
indistinctly through the open door.

Marion uttered a great cry. She tried to
raise herself, but her limbs were powerless.

" In the name o' God ! my dochter, come
ben ! "

Alice stepped over the doorway, and came in.

She stood in the middle of the room, a maiden
of seventeen years. Her features had sharpened
out into distinct form and thoughtful beauty.
She was neither like her mother, nor her father,
— except in the color of her hair ; but bore the
10

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110 ALICE LEARMONT, OR

likeness which Marion had so desired when she
gave her first-born the name of Alice — her own
mother's name. So strong was the resemblance,
that, when the girl stood, still afar ofi^, in her
white clothing, with her hands loosely folded
together and her eyes bent tenderly forward,
the sick woman looked at her daughter with a
sort of awe, as if there had still been some
reality in her first fancy, and Alice were indeed
a vision from the dead.

" Are ye my bairn ? " she whispered solemnly.
"Are ye flesh and bliide — my flesh and my
blude — my ae dochter that I bore ? '*

Alice approached, and stood at her mother's
feet.

" I am your bairn. Will ye take me, mother,
for this night? I was so wearying to come
home."

" My bairn — my dear Alice — my lassie true
and kind ! " cried the mother, stretching out
longing arms. But in vain, for her strength
was gone.

"I canna reach ye," she said, piteously.
" I'm sair changed and weak. I do naething
but murn and murn a' the day. Ye maun tak

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A mother's love. Ill

your puir auld mither to your arms, Alice, for
she canna tak ye in hers."

Alice looked surprised, anxious, grieved, at
the worn face, and the gray hairs which had
come before their time. For though Mistress
Learmont was not old, the cares and sorrows of
her life, its poverty and its toil, had made her
seem like a woman far gone in years. Her
beauty had faded ; all except the one charm
that she could not lose — the mild patience
which sat like a glory in her eyes. It touched
Alice as something new — something never seen
in Fairyland. It subdued her so, that she, in
all her loveliness of unclouded youth, came
near, and bending down lowly, knelt before her
sick mother, and threw round the shivering
frame her shining arms.

" Are ye come back, my dearie ? come back
for gude and a' ? " whispered Marion, giving
herself up to the uncontrollable joy.

Alice sighed ; ay, a real sigh, the first the
mother had ever heard on her lips. ^'Nay,
we will not speak of that. I am here now.
They let me come the minute the sun set, be-

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112 ALICE LEARMONT, OR

cause my longings made their power weak.
Are you glad to see me, mother ? "

" Glad, my bairn ! " echoed Marion in a tone
that was suflScient answer.

Her daughter looked round, half-curiously,
yet with a mingling of interest. "It's the
same place I see, the room where I and my
brothers played so merrily. Where's Hughie,
mother ? "

" He's gane wi' the rest to follow the plough,
or fetch the kye hame ; or maybe he's awa to
some ploy or ither. He's a pawky lad, — our
Hugh."

" Does he mind of me, mother ? "

" Ay ; often thae Gallants talk o' wee Alice
that was wi' them seven years syne ; and ance,
when Hughie was missing on the hills for a day
and a nicht, he cam hame saying he had been
dreaming that he fell in til the Tweed, and that
his sister Alice saved him. He kent nae mair.
But 'twas unco strange."

Nothing did Alice say, for she knew that
those who return from Fairyland have no clear
remembrance of aught that has happened to
them there. Only thinking of her brother

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A mother's love. 113

Hugh and of that wondrous journey, she snuled
pensively.

In her smile the likeness she bore grew
stronger. Marion, watching her, saw it. She
took her daughter's face between her hands,
and said, —

" Look sae ance mair, Alice ! Ye're her very
picture. I didna see't till this day, when ye're
grown a woman, grave and dowie like. Ye hae
her een, and her bonnie bree wi' the hair lying
soft aboon ; only yours is bright as gowd, and
hers was like threads of siller — my puir auld
mither ! But I'm glad ye're like her, Alice ;
Pm unco glad ! "

Her voice was trembling through tears ; her
words, feeble, " maundering," and long drawn
out, bespoke the wandering fancies of sickness.
When she ceased, her head sanjc back exhausted
on the pillow.

Alice stood wistfully regarding that — to her
— strange new sight — disease and pain.

'* What ails you, mother ? What can I do for
you?" she asked, more by the human and
womanly instinct within her, than by any deeper
feeling.

10*

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114 AUCE LEABMONT, OB

" I'm very sick, Alice ; and I hae naebody to
tend me. 0, gin ye'd gie me a drink, and
bathe my bree, and kame my hair," she moaned,
looking imploringly at her daughter.

Alice rose up, and went about the house, not
as in years before, with flaunting childish mien,
but with the grave light footsteps of maiden-
hood. She went — all in her bright clothing,
still redolent of the odors of Fairyland ; she
brought the light, and got ready the cool drink,
— doing things which she had never done be-
fore, but which her earthly nature instinctively
taught her.

" Ah, it's sweet, sae sweet," murmured the
sick woman, receiving, for the first time, the
cup from her daughter's hand. " Ilka thing
tastes glide frae ye, my lassie, as my ain mither
was wont to say to me lang syne, God help
thae puir auld bodies that hae ne'er a doch-
ter ! "

Alice smiled, and in her cheek, always so
clear, rose a transparent flush of pleasure —
pleasure quite diflFerent to what was so called in
Elfland.

Her mother, a little revived, sat up in her

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A mother's loye. 115

bed, and looked at her once more ; it seemed as
if she could never tire of such gazing, which
absorbed all thought, but of the present.

"Ye're a sweet lassie, Alice — and fair to
see. But I dinna like thae braws — they're no
fit for a puir man's bairn," said she, touching
the glittering robes, armlets and jewels, or what
seemed such — with which her daughter was
adorned. Alice looked vexed.

" Aweel, my dearie, I wadna grieve ye. Only
it gars ye seem as if ye were a grand leddy,
and no my ain dochter ; — whilk, maybe, is but
the truth," added she, sadly.

Alice sat a minute in thought ; then, without
speaking, she went to the corner where thick in
dust hung some of her mother's garments, long
unworn through sickness. She stripped oflF all
her shining gauds, and dressed herself in these
coarse clothes, which, while somewhat hiding
her form, made her look sweeter and fairer,
because more like a mortal maiden.

"Ah! I ken ye now — ye're my ain, my
ain," cried the mother, embracing her. " Ye'U
loe me — and tend me — and never, never part
frae me ! '*

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116 ALIC5E LEARMONT, OB

The girl sighed, but made no answer; and
began quietly to fulfil all a daughter's offices
towards the sick woman. She bathed her face,
and taking off her cap, let down the hair al-
ready turned to gray. Alice paused, with the
locks in her hand.

" Are you very old, mother ? Will you
never be young and fair-looking any more?
Do all people that live on earth grow feeble as
you ? "

"In time — my bairn — in time! But it's
iiaething. I was a bonny lass mysel, ance —
when I married your father, and even when I
brought ye into the warld. -^ But I forget a'
that. It's sweeter to be an auld wifie, and hae
a bonnie dochter smilin' near. Then, a body
isna feared for growin' auld."

Her cheerful look, as she leaned forward and
let Alice comb her gray hair, was almost like
the smile of young Marion Learmont, when,
seventeen years before, she sat tying the fatal
green round the cradle of her expected babe.
Her overladen heart heaved a sigh of entire
content; and again and again she drew Alice
closer, to look into her young face, and admire

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A mother's love. 117

the maidenly beauties of her form. In this
maternal love was an exulting pride, almost as
strong as that with which a young man watches
the dawning perfections of his mistress — a
pride which none can know or understand but
a mother who beholds her only daughter
woman-grown, and feels her own youth restored
in the fair completeness of what was once a frail
baby-life trembling at her breast.

An hour pJIssed in this deep serenity of joy ;
and then Meg Brydon came creeping in, eyeing
with shame and discomfiture her forsaken mis-
tress.

" Gang your gate, Meg," said Mistress Lear-
mont, cheerfully. " I will need ye nae mair ; I
hae my ain dochter that's come hame this nicht.
Look ye here, Meg Brydon : — isna she a bon-
nie lass ? "

But Meg, frightened at the apparition of the
fair creature that sat beside Mistress Learmont's
bed, and remembering all the tales of the stolen
Alice, took hastily to flight. The mother and
daughter were left together, as before.

" We'll be our lane the hale nicht, maist like-
ly," said Marion to her child. "It's New-

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118 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

year's night, ye ken, and your father and the
three callants are down at Melrose, keeping
Hogmanay. I forbade them to bide at hame —
douf and dowie wi' me. But, my Alice, I
kenn'd na then I wad hae thee ! "

So amidst long talk and sweet pauses of si-
lence, the night passed away. Then, for the
first time, Alice heard the things pertaining to
simple earthly lore ; of precious home-bonds ,
of afflictions softened by tenderness ; of trials
made holy by patience ; of human sorrows, that
go hand-in-hand with human joys ; of evil en-
hancing good ; of wrong creating forbearance ;
and long-suffering, ever present love, reigning
triumphant over all.

These many things did Marion Learmont
teach unto her daughter, though so uncon-
sciously, that any stranger listening would have
said that it was merely an " auld wife claver-
ing " to a young girl about former days, and
her own past life, together with the events of
her family. Nothing wonderful she told — only
that history which belongs to every household
and every individual, in all times, ancient or
modern, of which the text, adduced either as

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A mother's loyb. 119

example or warning, perpetually is, or ought
to be, these words — the honey of the world's
bitter cup — ^^ My' little children^ love one arir
other:'

It might be about ten o'clock at night, when
the solitude of Marion Learmont and her
daughter was broken by voices at the door
without.

Alice trembled, and instinctively clung to her
mother's hand.

"0, hold me fast ; just a little while longer,"
she whispered eagerly.

" What for do ye fear, my lassie ? It's nae-
body but your ain father, and your brithers
three ; stand and let them see ye, my dochter."

With a sweet and bashful grace, her face yet
pale from the unexplained terror, Alice stood —
a vision of beauty — before her rough sire and
her three wild brothers. They were utterly
confounded.

" What's this, Marion ? " said the late archer
of Queen Mary's guard, stooping his yellow
locks, now growing grizzled and thin, near his
ailing wife, and trying to lower his strong voice
so as not to jar upon her feeble ear.

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120 ALIGB LEABMONT, OB

" It's our Alice, our first-born. She's come
hame. Gie her your blessing."

" Eh, our Alice that was stown awa ? " said
Thomas Learmont, who, like all recovered mor-
tals, was utterly oblivious of the past, and bore
no memory of the stream in Fairyland, or the
little elfin-daughter that used to visit him there.
'' Alice come back ! Sure, lass, I'm unco glad
to see ye ! "

He took her in his sturdy arms, and his hearty
parental kiss resounded over the whole house.

" Whar hae ye been, ye foolish lassie ? ye hae
caused us mickle dule. Ye suld hae come back
for your puir mither's. sake, that needs a las&-
bairn to tend on her, instead of thae big callants
and mysel', though we aye do our best. But
ye'U fare better now, Marion woman ! "

He patted his wife's shoulder with his huge
hand, and she looked up tenderly at him. Times
were changed with them, and they were changed
too, — except in thQ afiection which on both
sides had lasted, and would last, until the end.

Meanwhile the three lads had hung back, op-
pressed with the uncouth shyness peculiar to
their age. Only Hugh among them took cour-

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A mother's love. 121

age to lift up his eyes and speak to sister Alice.
He had grown a sturdy fellow, less bonnie, per-
haps, than in his childhood, but with the prom-
ise of becoming a Learmont worthy even as
True Thomas of a Queen of Fairies' love.

His sister came and looked up in his face, —
a decided looking up, for she was a wee crea-
ture always, quite elf-like in proportion, when
standing beside her big brother of thirteen
years old.

" Hughie, dear ! won't you speak to me ? "

Hughie cast his eyes upon her shyly, but ten-
derly. " Ay, I'll do that, — I mind ye now, sis-
ter Alice, and a' the things I dreamed about ye ;
and," he added mysteriously, " I ken ye hae been
wi' the gude neighbors, and I hae sought ye in
ilka green ring, and aye at Hallowe'en, but I
couldna find ye. Ye're found now! 0, but
we'll keep Hogmanay, fine ! "

As a mild way of expressing his feelings,
Hughie tossed up his bonnet in the air, and ex-
ecuted a brief fragment of a reel, which drove
Habbie and Sandy out of the reach of his legs
with great precipitation.

" Ye're richt, lad," said the father, turning
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122 ALICE LEARMONT, OB

round, with a loud, cheerful laugh. "Auld
wife, it's our blithest 'New-year yet, and we'll
keep it brawly ; sitting here wi' a' our bairns
round us ! "

" Save ane," whispered the mother, " wee
Willie, that's sittin' this ae nicht in heaven at
at His feet."

Thomas Learmont took off his bonnet, so did
the lads ; and there was silence in the house for
a minute. It was a pause consecrated to the
memory of the one lamb lost out of the flock to
be gathered into the safe fold of the Great
Shepherd.

Then began the merriment of Hogmanay —
kept as merrily in those olden days as now.
Parents and children gathered round the fire,
which, for this occasion only, was piled up with
fagots that would have done honor to the time
when the wine ran red, and the hospitable ingle
blazed perpetually in the Tower of Ercildoun.
The young Learmonts sported, shouted, and
danced ; but whenever the uproar grew too wild,
Alice's gentleness fell like dew upon the other
three, softening rudeness or contention, coming
among her troop of brothers to be what a sister

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A mother's love. 123

can always be, the healer of discord, the sooth-
er, the refiner.

All these things she had learned, partly by
nature, — her mother's nature, which was inher-
ent in her ; and partly by the sudden instinct, de-
veloped at once, during the few hours when she
had lain listening to that mild speech which first
put all a daughter's emotions into her heart.

She was very happy too. Ay, though on this
memorable night, when she began to feel alto-
gether like a maiden of earth, she grew hungry
— and the food was coarse; weary — and was
startled by her father's loud laugh, so diiOFerent
from the lulling melodies of Fairyland ; though
oftentimes her brothers' noisy play jarred upon
her delicate senses, and their rough caresses
half-frightened her, — still she was happy. She
had learnt for the first time the great secret of
all human happiness — family love.

The hour came, the eerie time between the
night and the day, between the past and com^
ing year, — the hour which had brought Alice
into the world. As the clock chimed, Thomas
Learmont took his first-born and only daugh-
ter in his arms and blessed her; while the

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124 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

parental love, which is an instinct in a mother,
but in a father is usually the growth of years,
and dependent on external sympathies, rose to
his heart, and fell in drops from his manly eyes.

Then her mother kissed her fondly, and after-
wards her brothers did the same — awkwardly
and shyly, as all brothers do, at the age when
the testifying of household affection seems to
them undignified, — in fact, a positive sin against
the independence of boyhood. All said, " God
bless thee, Alice, — our Alice ! " and she felt that
she was indeed one of them, ready to share all
things with them, through good and evil; —
that the solitary delights of Elfland were de-
sired by her no more.

" Now, gang to your bed, my dochter," said
Mistress Learmont, tenderly, when, the New-
year having fairly commenced, the three lads
were despatched to sleep and quietness, during
the only portion of the twenty-four hours that
they ever were quiet. " But yet I canna tine ye
for an hour."

" 0, do not, mother," sighed Alice, while the
olden shadow of fear troubled her face. " Hold
me fast — fast ; let me not go."

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TUE RKTUIIX OF ALICE.

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A mother's love. 125

"Ay, the lass is skeared. Nae doubt; the
place looks drearie like — bide ye wi' your
mither, Alice," said Thomas Learmont, kindly,
as he rolled himself in his plaid and lay down at
the outer door.

So Alice, exhausted with a joy that made her
feel weak and trembling like any earthly maid-
en, crept gladly to the maternal breast.

She had not slept there long, when she was
wakened with the dawn glimmering into her
eyelids. Very soon that dim ray was swallowed
tip in one far brighter. The whole house was
filled with light, and thrilled with delicious
music. Alice knew it well. The sweet sum-
mons reached her as one of doom. It was the
fairy people come to take her away.

Shuddering she listened, and with an instinct
natural and child-like, yet, alas ! to her so new,
tried to wake her mother. But Marion Lear-
mont slept soimdly, with a sweet smile on her
worn face, which in this happiness seemed al-
most to have renewed its youth. She slept as
if a deep spell was upon her, blinding her to her
child's peril. Only in sleep she held her arms
so tightly wound round her, that Alice felt a
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126 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

kind of safety in their fold. Prom thence the
poor maiden looked out and watched the elfin
people gathering round the bed.

"Come, Alice; come, pretty Alice," sang
they, amidst their gambols. "Are you not
weary of these coarse laidly mortals ? Come
back to us, quick ! "

" 0, let me stay a little longer," implored the
girl. " I am so tired of dancing and singing.
I had rather bide at home."

" Hey ho ! " laughed out the Elf-queen, step-
ping lightly into the ring ; " this is something
quite new. What has come over my young
hand-maiden ? She would like to stay in a
wretched tumble-down dwelling where the rain
always comes in and the smoke never goes out ;
and to live with such people, too ! Entering the
door, which he left open to stretch his feet
through, I had to step over such a lumbering
carcass of a mortal. Faugh ! is my young
Thomas Learmont come to this ? a thing with
grizzled hair and coarse hands ! "

"He is my father, my kind good father,"
cried Alice.

"And that woman there, how ugly! why.

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A motheb's love. 127

Z could lay my little finger in each of her
wrinkles."

" My mother, my own mother that I lore ! "
Alice answered, as she turned and pressed her
young lips to every furrow marked in the with-
ered brows.

Tlie elves set up a shout of derision.

" Nay, Alice," said the queen, her silvery
laugliter making a pleasant under-tone of mel-
ody, " this may be all very well for some com-
mon tastes, but not for a descendant of my True
Thomas, who gave up all for me. Ay, all!
though the Tower of Ercildoun was a home
rich and fair, while this is a poor cottage ; —
though he was held the noblest knight in all
Scotland, while you are just a farmer's lass. Be
wise, simple one ; come back to former ways and
former delights."

At her signal the elves began to dance the
old delicious measures which Alice remembered
well. So strong was the enchantment that she
had need to close her eyes and stop her ears lest
she should be allured against her will. Had it
not been that her mother's arms were so closely
locked around her, perhaps she would even

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128 AUCE LEABMONT, OB

have leaped forth and joined the rout of fran-
tic pleasure.

All at once it paused, melting into delicious,
soul-enticing music, thi*ough which was only
heard the voice of the Elf-queen, murmuring,
" Alice, come."

She lifted her head, and said firmly, " I will
not come."

There was a loud and angry wail, like that
of the wind tearing the trees, a rolling like
thunder, and in these sounds the music died.

" Do as you list, foolish mortal," Alice heard
uttered in a sharp, sarcastic voice by her side,
though she saw nothing. ^^ It matters not to us,
for you will soon be ours. It is daylight, and
we must be away to Fairyland; while those
arms still hold you safe from our power. But
by the. next twilight, when the shadows fall gray
behind Eildon Hill, ha, ha, ha ! — Foolish Alice,
foolish Alice, when this is the seventh year —
and a mortal fair as you will please the Fiend
well. Ho, ho!"

A shout of angry laughter shook the roof;
the elves vanished, and the whole house lay
silent in the dawn.

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A mother's love. 129

Mistress Learmont woke, and tremblingly felt
for her daughter. Her beloved Alice lay in her
bosom, quite still and pale, with open eyes
watching the sunbeams creep along the floor.
It was the first time Marion had ever seen that
face in daylight — the first time Alice had
ever beheld the sun — the warm, healthy, la-
bor-inspiring, earth-risen sun.

" Is this morning ? " she said, softly, turning
her eyes, full of strange pensiveness, on her
mother.

" It is, my bairn ; God be wi* ye on this braw
New-year."

Alice was silent. She scarce imderstood the
blessing; it belonged to a lore not taught in
Fairyland. Soon afterwards she said, still keep-
ing her thoughtful look, —

"Mother, how long do you call a day,^—
from twilight to twilight ? ''

" It's unco short now, frae sunrise to sunset ;
we hae scarce time for the wark that maun be
dune."

" Nor I," said Alice, sadly. " Mother, may I
rise?"

She rose accordingly ; and Marion Learmont

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ISO ALICE LEAUMONT, OR

beheld her daughter moving about the house
like other mortal daughters, ready to fulfil all
the duties that it behoved her to learn. Very
pale and clear Alice's features looked in the
bright daylight. There was even a wan, un-
earthly aspect about her — a weariness and
painful repose. All the day she comported her-
self thus ; doing whatsoever became her station,
and doing it in a manner that seemed as if she
had been used to it all her life. Only when the
neighbors came in to stare at her, and some
marvelled at her wondrous grace, and some
jested bitterly about Thomas Learmont's lost
daughter, who had come back they knew not
from where, Alice would shrink away and hide
herself by her mother's side, where alone she
seemed to find entire content and rest.

It was a dull winter day, and the forenoon
had scarcely passed, when black rain-clouds
grew heavy over Eildon Hill. As they dark-
ened, evermore Alice's sweet face darkened too.
She would pause continually in her light labor
or her pleasant talk, and look sorrowfully at her
mother, as if she could not find speech to tell
her pain. As the afternoon closed in, and the

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A mother's love. 131

mid-day meal being over, the father and brothers
went back to their toil, — Alice, sitting with her
mother, grew continually sadder and sadder.
Nevertheless, she went about the house, heaped
fagots on the fire, prepared food, and did every
thing for the sick woman's comfort, just as if
she herself had been going away, and wished to
leave every thing in neat order, so as to be com-
fortable for the one she loved.

She took one other precaution before she
came and sat down at her mother's side ; — she
bolted and barred the doors, leaving no entrance
from without. But she did it with a despairing
look, as though she knew that all was in vain.

About dusk Marion Learmont fell asleep ;
but waking soon after, asked for water. Alice
brought her a pitcher-full.

" Ah, not that, my bairji ; I wad like, a
draught frae that bonnie burn ye see," said she,
with feverish longing. " It's no mony steps frae
this, and it rins ower pebbles sae fresh and clear.
Alice, will ye gang ? "

Alice sighed, as though knowing all that
would follow from this request, so meekly and
unconsciously made. But there was no resist-

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132 AUCE LEABMONT, OB

ing the mother's desire. She took up her
pitcher, and went.

She came back again, very pale, with quick,
wild steps. There was a sound following her,
like the soughing of an angry wind, though
nothing could be seen.

Hurriedly the girl put the cup to her mother's
lips.

" Drink, mother, drink, and then kiss me ;
for I must go."

" Whar, my lassie ? "

" Far away, far away, with those you know. —
They drag me, they constrain me. Mother, I
cannot stay!"

Her voice was almost a scream, and she
writhed like one struggling with invisible hands.

" 0, remember me, mother, and I'll remem-
ber you ! And ah ! keep Hughie safe, that he
comes no more into their power, where I stay
miserable and against my will."

" Then ye sail be saved, my bairn," cried the
mother, rising from her first numbed terror into
supernatural strength. "He that gave ye to
me — He that is the keeper o' your saul — is
greater than they that baud ye fast. He winna

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A mother's lotb. 133

leave ye to perish, — He will help your mither
to save ye. How maun I do't? Tell me,
Alice, my ae dochter — my first-born, sent by
God!" '

As she uttered the great Name, a wild and
mournful cry arose ; with it was mingled Alice's
voice : —

"Ay! save me, mother. Stand at the four
cross roads, on the eve of Roodmass, when we
all ride. Ye'U see me. Snatch me, and hold
me fast, and have no fear. 0, save me, mother,
mother ! "

It was only a voice that spoke — nothing
more. Alice had melted out of sight. Her
cry of " Save me, save me ! " died away in dis-
tance and silence ; and the mother heard noth-
ing — felt nothing — but the bitter winter wind
blowing through the open door,
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134 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

CHAPTER VIII.

Far, far through all the black depths of the
underground world did the elves bear their
changeling maiden ; now, for the first time, an
unwilling and sorrowful prey. Feeble and ex-
hausted she was too, even like any mortal girl,
worn out by weeping and regret.

" Now, Alice, thou art the most foolish damsel
on earth," said the blithesome queen, who had
not feeling enough to be either angry or revenge-
ful. " To think of your desiring to remain be-
hind, and crying your sweet eyes blind because
the thing was impossible ! Look, how near
shines the golden gate ! soon we will be once
more in Fairyland."

But Alice wept on.

" I never knew such a provoking little mor-
tal. Don't go on dreaming, Alice. Look at
this stream we have to cross."

The girl looked mechanically. Well she knew
the shallow river, which, with many another, she
had waded through again and again, while the

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A mother's love. 135

light elves skimmed along the top. But while
in the midst of its current, she cast her eyes
down, shuddered, and screamed ; she saw it
as she had never seen it before — a river of
blood.

" What, you dislike that ? " said the Queen
of Fairies. " Really, how very particular my
handsome maiden has grown ! worse by far than
the Ejiight of Ercildoun, whom I led hither.
It is only the blood spilt on earth, which drips
down to Fairyland. We have no objection. It
makes our streams a brighter color ; that is all.
Come across, my little maid.'*

In an agony Alice struggled to the shore, un-
harmed, save by a few red drops that clung to
her robe.*

" It is the blood of Geordie Grahame, slain by
your father the day you were born," observed
the queen, carelessly. " But no matter ; the
next stream we cross will wash it out. Ay, and
you may drink of that," she continued, as Alice
lay exhausted beside another rivulet, which ran
clear and sparkling, though with a perfectly si-
lent flow.

Dying with thirst, Alice dipped in her hoU

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136 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

lowed hand, and put it to her lips, but the water
was salt and bitter.

" Drink, silly maiden ! It is only the tears
shed on earth, coming down hither. Mortal
women — and your mother especially — help to
keep the river continually flowing. Prythee,
Alice, do not add to the ware."

"Ah me ! " cried Alice ; " and it is throu^
blood and tears that I must pass, and have
passed, to reach the land of pleasure ! " *

No more she spake, but fell heavily on the
ground, so often traversed with delight, but
which she now with opened eyes saw to be a
delusive and a thorny way.

" 0, these mortals, these mortals ! ** petulantly
exclaimed the Queen of Fairies. " But take her
up, my elves, and bring her safe through the
golden gate ; it is quite impossible that our
peace can be disturbed by an earth-born crea-
ture's lamentings outside the portals of Fairy-
land. Once within there, she will of course be
content; and we will have a few extra feasts
and junketings. The glory of our kingdom is
concerned ; for, my subjects, the fact is," — and
her majesty shrugged her shoulders, — "we may

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A mother's love. 187

not keep any thing human long, if altogether
against its will. As mj Knight of Ercildoun
foretold, we may have to give her up at last ;
but we'll keep the creature as long as we can."

Having delivered herself of this dignified har-
angue, to the which the bells of her palfrey rung
applause, the queen spurred on, and entered the
fair gates of her kingdom.

There, silently leaning against the portals
which ho might never pass, sometimes looking
wistfully through their transparent net-work,
sometimes striking mome^tary chords on the
harp that hung always at his side, stood Thomas
of Ercildoun.

His countenance brightened when he saw the^
qiieen — his adored ever; though, like many
another bard, he had worshipped no reality, but
only the dream of his own poet-heart.

" Are ye come back, my lady and love ? " said
he, advancing; ^^and hae ye brought young
Alice Learmont ? "

"Ay, at last ; and not content with a whole

night and a day on earth, she wanted to abide

ihere constantly. She is as discontented as you

are sometimes, my knight, only with much more

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138 , ALICE LEARMONT, OR

cause, since she has never a true love here in
Fairyland/'

The Rhymer looked with glittering eyes at the
small elfin form that wreathed itself about him
in sprite-like, child-like vagaries. Even in her
caressing moods, the fairy lady had an incon-
stant, butterfly air ; there was nothing in her of
the quiet, tender woman-nature which will cling
to what it loves because it loves, and, loving,
cannot choose but cling. Yet very witching, in
any shape, was the Rhymer's love.

He watched her, still overcome by the gla-
mour which had never entirely passed away.
But at last his eye turned to where Alice Lear-
mont lay in a state of death-like unconsciousness
which quite puzzled the elves. They were try-
ing all means to awake her ; some buzzing about
her in the shape of bees ; others putting on the
tiny feathers of birds, and warbling close in her
ears ; and the rest shouting her name, their call
sounding like dim echoes heard among wood-
lands. But there she lay, white and motionless,
save for the slow tears that came stealing under
her eyelids. Her bitter grief was upon her
still.

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A mother's love. 139

It penetrated the mortal nature of the Bard
of Ercildoun.

" Let me gang till her," said he to the queen.
" She comes o' my blude — the earthly blude
that throbs in my heart still. Like can comfort
like. I'll ask at the lassie wherefore she grieves
sae sair."

"Away with you, True Thomas; only take
heed " — and the queen shook her dainty finger
warningly — "I cannot spare any more mor-
tals of the Learmont race, after him that truly
was well spared, the great burly archer of Mel-
rose."

She flitted away, her elveS careering after her
in merry whirls on the grass, or in airy eddies
like dust-clouds, leaving the coast clear for
Thomas the Rhymer and his descendant.

He approached Alice softly, nay, reverently ;
for he saw in her the traces of that earthly suf-
fering which from himself had for centuries
passed away. Pensive he was, but the faint
shadow on his brow was nothing to Alice's utter
despair. She lay and wept like one who would
not be comforted.

He called her by her name,, bitb she answered

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140 ALICE LEARMONT, OB

not. Then in a tone gentle as a woman, he
said, " My dochter ! "

Alice started up with a great cry — "Who
calls me thus? — 0, mother, mother! have
you come after me all the way to this cruel
land?"

But she saw nothing except the green grass,
and the hazy, shadowless trees standing up in
their places, while underneath them, as upright
and as still, stood the Rhymer.

" It is no your mither that speaks,'' said he.
" It is my ain sel, that ye ken weel — your an-
cestor, Thomas Learmont of Ercildoun, that
mony hundred yedrs syne wonned away to
Fairyland, and was never seen mair."

Alice came nearer, and there was life and in-
terest in her eyes. " Are you from Tweedside,
a mortal, and of my kin ? '*

"Ye heard a' that — lang syne."

" I heard, but heeded not. I scarce heeded
any thing till yesternight, when I hearkened to
my mother. 0, mother, mother ! will I never
hear your voice any more ? "

" Did she tell ye aught concerning me ? "
asked the Rhymer, eagerly. " Or is my name

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A mother's love. 141

clean forgot amang my ain folk and i' the land
I lo'ed sae weel V\

Alice put her hand to her brow. " Wait till
I think of what she said. Ay, it is clear now."
And she looked up in his face steadily. " You
were the Knight of Brcildoun ; and you left
everything — home, parents, young wife, and
innocent babe — to go with a beautiful lady into
Fairyland, for seven years. Then you came
back, and lived as a good knight should. At
last she summoned you, — the Queen of Fairies,
— and you went away again — forever. 0,
how could you go, having once come back to the
dear earth?"

The Rhymer sunk his head, murmuring, " I
canna tell. — It was to be, and it was sae."

" And how returned you ? Ah, show me the
way. Teach me how to go back to my dear
mother and my brother Hugh."

She flung herself at his feet, embracing them
in her agony of entreaty.

" Ye ken there's but ane way," said the
Rhymer, gently ; " to bide here till spring dawns
on the earth ; and at the time o' Roodmass the
fairies ride. Gin your mither loe ye still, ye

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142 AUGE LEARIIONT9 OB

may be sayed, Alice Learmont. Oie thanks to
her that yestreen ye didna tine your saul," add-
ed he in an awftil whisper.

Alice looked up, trembling.

"Ye kentna that while ye lay saft i* your
mither's arms, there cam up that black road
the Evil Ane, him that goes about like a ramping
and a roaring lion. He took back nae mortal,
but an elf, as the teind to hell. Ye're safe, my
bairn, gin your heart fail not, nor your mither's
luve."

While the seer spoke, the solitude of the wood
where they sat was broken by the entrance of
the fairy-troop. Little heed the elves took of the
mortals, being absorbed in their own delights.
They came on with songs and laughter, and sat
down to golden banquet tables, that sprang out
of the ground like mushrooms. Alice, half-
dead with hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, looked
on, but came not riigh. The feast ended, they
broke forth into mad revelries ; music that al-
lured the very soul, and dances that whoever
saw must needs dance after — were it through
bush, bramble, or brier.

Alice pressed her eyelids forcibly down to shut

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A mother's love. 143

out the sight, — once so familiar, — which she
felt was controlling her senses, and luring her
back beyond recall.

" 0, mother, mother!" she murmured, and
strove to think of the dim cottage, and the sick
bed, and her who lay there, moaning her heart
away for the loss of her child. But still tho
fairy spell was too strong, and drew the girl's
feet nearer and nearer to the enchanting scene.

"0, keep me back," she cried, turning to
what seemed her only stay, — him who had once
been a mortal like herself. But still the words
were words only ; continually she moved nearer
and nearer to the dazzling rout.

Thomas the Rhymer looked after her with
doubtful eyes. " It maunna be," said he,
thoughtfully ; " a* that I hae tint, I hae tint ;
but this lassie, sae tender and sae fair — Alice
Learmorit ! " added he, calling her by her earthly
name, with a severe and firm voice.

The maiden paused, even though her feet
were just touching the magic ring.

" Whar ar ye gaun ? Hae ye forgotten your
mither?"

Alice paused, sighed, and stood irresolute.

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144

" Will ye be saved ? " said the Ehymer.

"I cannot — I cannot! their power is too
strong for me," sobbed Alice; "yet, 0, my
mother ! "

At the word, Thomas of Ercildoun drew her
to the brink of a little rivulet that crept through
the wood ; just a slender rill, coming from the
one river of earth that flowed through Fairy-
land. He dipped his fingers in the water,
sprinkled her eyelids, and made on them a sign,
in his days held most sacred, and still rever-
enced as a memorial of holy things — the cross.
Then he bade her open her eyes and see.

Alice saw — but 0, with what changed vision !

All the fair wood, alive with flickering leaves
and waving plants, had become a forest of bare,
lifeless trees. The foliage had dropped off the
boughs, the flowers had withered where they
grew. There was no beauty, no pleasure there-
in ; nothing but discordant voices, and a dead
blank of sight and sound.

Shuddering, Alice ran forward to seek her old
companions ; ay, any companionship at all in the
desolate place. But the banquet-hall had faded
into ruins ; the dainties were only so many with-

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A mother's love. 145

ered leaves ; the golden tables nothing but fungi
and ugly incrustations of blasted trees ; the gay
draperies around mere spidfer-webs, flittering to
and fro in the gusty wind.

The ^rl would have shrieked, but the same
spell which had opened her eyes had sealed her
lips for the time. Vainly she looked round for
Thomas the Rhymer ; he had disappeared. She
wandered along the paths she knew, yet some-
times doubtful of her way, so changed was
every thing, until she reached the dell where the

Queen of Fairies kept her favorite court.

"Welcome, welcome, Alice!" shouted the

elves in the distance. But their voices, once so
sweet, now sounded discordant as ravens hoot-
ing from a crumbling tower. And, coming
nearer, the maiden beheld them clear.

0, horror ! There was a ghastly, loathly hag
sitting on a throne, laughing loudly through
her toothless lips, her yellow shrunken limbs
peering ugly beneath foul rags that were dis-
posed as jantily as if they had been rich
clothing. There was a court of withered worn-
looking creatures, that in their uncomely age
imitated the frolics of youth. All things about
13

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146 ALICE LEABMONT, OR

them were pale and unsubstantial, jaded, com-
fortless, and drear. Yet they seemed not to
know it, but in all this wretched guise played
the same antics, and with their cracked hoarse
voices sang the same songs, which had once
been so enchanting. Every thing was as it had
ever been — only from it the glamour was gone.

"Ye see the truth now," said a mournful
whisper in Alice's ear ; and the Ehymer stood
behind her.

" And do you see it thus ? " asked the shud-
dering girl.

" Maybe, not sae fearsome as it is in your een.
For I am ane o' them, and we maun a' cheat
ane anither, until the end ; but I ken weel that
whatever it seemsj it is even sae."

So saying, with a mechanical footstep, neither
hurried nor slow, he went into the magic ring,
and lay down at the feet of the ghastly queen,
— who, under whatever guise he beheld her,
was doomed to be his object of worship ever-
more.

But Alice, shrinking away with terror and
disgust, hid herself in the solitary wood. There
she staid for days and weeks; lying on with-

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A motheb'b love. 147

ered fern, and feeding scantily on berries that
came from seeds of earth drifted along by the
earthly rivulet. Perpetually there came by her
portions of the elfin' shows, which had once
seemed so pleasant, but were now so foul. She
joined them not; in misery, and repentance,
and pain, did she bide her time, until the season
of the Fairies' Baid came round.

One evening, when she sat on the brink of the
stream — which alone, of all the sights in Fairy-
land, kept its freshness and beauty — she saw
drifting by one of those branches covered with
soft, woolly leaf-buds, which, appearing at Easter,
are to this day called palms.

As she looked, Thomas of Ercildoun, whom
she had not seen for long, appeared at her side,
watching likewise the little bough.

" Alice," said he, " ye hae received your sign.
It is spring time on the bonnie meadows o'
Tweedside. When the next gloaming fSsi's, it
will be the Eve o' Roodmass."

He had scarcely spoken, when the gathering
summons stirred up all the dwellers in Fairy-
land. On they came, clustering in throngs
round the entrance gate, collecting what had

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148 ALICE LEABMONT, OR

once seemed their gallant nags and palfreys, but
which now Alice saw to be only hemp-stalks and
bean-wands, and withered boughs of trees, on
which the skeleton leaves, waving and rustling,
made what had appeared tlie glitter of golden
housings and the music of bridles ringing.

Hoarsely resounded the universal call, for on
this, the first of the two grand yearly festivals,
no one, elfin or mortal, might be absent from
the Fairies' Raid, — except him, who, coming of
his own will, had lost the power of revisiting
earth.

Slowly he followed, lingering until already
the first of the pageant had passed through the
gates, and Alice, the last of all, waited with
eager longings until she herself was allowed to
depart.

The Rhymer stood watching her with sorrow-
ful yearning.

" Pare-ye-weel, Alice ; I see a' things clear.
Mither's luve is strong, and mither's prayers
stronger. Ye pass the gate that ye will enter
nae mair. Fare-ye-weel ! "

Alice trembled with joy. She prepared to
go ; bathed her naked, bruised feet in the little

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A mother's love. 149

stream, and drew round her the poor rags that
had once seemed the gaudy robes of Elfinland.
Still, ere she left, she turned round with kind
tears to the Ehymer, her ancestor.

" My father, can I do aught for you ? Should
I reach safe the dear earth — our earth — is there
no power — no prayers, that could avail ? "

He shook his head mournfully. " Na, na !
the time is past. Gin I were ever found on the
fair earth, it wad be but as a heap o' white banes
crumbling i' the kirkyard o' Melrose. That a
man sowed, he sail even reap: I maun dree
my wierd, until the warld's ending. Hereafter,
there's Ane that maun do as His mercy wills wi'
my erring saul."

Ceasing — he folded his hands and cast down
his eyes, so majestic, yet so sad. His descendant
had no more to urge.

Once more only the Rhymer spoke, but in a
low voice, and humbly even as a mortal peni-
tent. " Alice, ae word. When a' chances as it
will chance, gang ye to the chapel by Ercildoun,
and look out for a gray stane I raised, aneath
the whilk I thocht that I and mine were to
sleep. There'll sure be there my son Thomas,
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150 ALICE LEABMONT, OB

and ane that was aye a giide wife to me. Alice,
say ten masses for their saiils."

So said he, not thinking of the centuries that
had swept away all traces of the living and the
dead alike, nor that mere tradition kept alive
the name of Thomas of Ercildoun.

Alice made him little answer, for she hardly
imderstood his meaning, and her whole heart
and thoughts were flying earthwards, in longing
and in love.

One by one, the fairy train passed out from
the gate, and last of all, the mortal maiden
passed out likewise.

" Pare-ye-weel, Alice," sounded behind her
like a sigh; and,' looking back, she saw the
Rhymer standing, dimly visible through the
ragged mould-encrusted bars which had once
seemed gold. His harp had fallen on the
ground, his arms were folded on his breast,
and his eyes, that could not weep, were bent
forward with the mournfulness of a yearning
never to be fulfilled. "Pare-ye-weel," he re-
peated once more ; then turned himself, lifted
Tip his beloved harp, and went back forever into
Fairyland.

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A mother's love. 151

CHAPTER IX.

It was early spring over all the Border-coun-
try. The gowans in the pasture fields began to
lift up their tiny heads, and the willows that
grew in the windings of the Tweed put on
downy buds, which the farmers* children called
" geese and goslings." A few young lambs
were tottering in the folds, and once or twice,
when the noon was very warm and mild, a
laverock had been heard singing high up in the
still blue air, above the abbey-turrets of Melrose.

There was a woman, very pale and weak, but
no longer sick — sitting under the shelter of the
monastery walls. Every day, when the weather
was mild, she crawled out and sat there, anxious
to gather up her strength to the utmost ; — and
so she had done for weeks and months. Very
quiet and composed she was ; full of that sereni-
ty which is given by a firm purpose deep buried
in the heart. This purpose — so intense and
resolved — had imparted strength and health
even to Marion Learmont.

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152 ALICE LEABMONT, OR

She sat, a little way from the place where wee
Willie's last cradle was made ; lifting her head
to the warm afternoon sunshine, and drinking
in the pleasant air. Meg Brydon kept not far
off; sometimes twisting flax diligently — some-
times stretching her lazy length upon the graves.

There they remained, hour after hour, until
the sun began to sink behind the hills; and
from the near abbey, the few remaining monks
of Melrose were heard chanting their feeble
and unregarded vespers. For now the old reli-
gion of the Stuarts was dying away in all the
land, and John Klnox's preachings were every
where heard, instead of matins and evensong.

" Meg," said Mistress Learmont, suddenly
calling.

The damsel appeared, from a gossip at the
abbey-gate.

" It's near the gloaming," said Marion, in a
tremulous and rather excited tone. " Gang
whar ye will, gude Meg; I'll just daunder
hame my ain sel ; I'm gey strong the noo.
See ! "

She rose, and with the aid of a stout hazel-
stick, marched steadily forward a few paces.

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A mother's love. 153

"Ye needna fash yoursel, lass," said she
kindly, when Meg, whom so good a mistress
had at last made a careful and devoted servant,
tried to assist her steps. " Na, na ; I'll e'en
gang my lane : I maun do't," she added in a
whisper to herself. " And He wha had on earth
a mither o' His ain, will guide a waefu' mither
this ae nicht."

She gently put her hand-maiden aside, and
walked on alone. Only having gone a little
way, she turned, and called back Meg, saying, —

" Gin I'm ower lang o' comin', tell the gude-
man he needna fear. I'll be about wark in the
whilk a Greater Ane than either husband or
bairn will tak tent to me, and see that I come
to nae harm. And, Meg," she added, for the
second time turning back to give directions.
" Dear Meg, be an eident lass, and see that a'
things are keepit braw for the gudeman and thae
wild callants, until the time that I come hame."

Her words, so serious and gentle, had a
deeper meaning than Meg could fathom. She
was half inclined to follow, but something in
her mistress's avspect forbade. She staid be-
hind, and Marion Learmont went on alone.

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154 ALICE LEARMONT, OB

— Past all her neighbors in Melrose town;
past house after house, where the old wives sat
knitting or spinning, and the children played in
the gloaming, the mother went. No one spoke
to her on the way ; it seemed so strange to see
the lone sick woman walking thus, that many
thought it was Marion Learmont's wraith.
And even those few who believed it was herself,
saw such a wondrously steadfast and absorbed
expression in her face, that they were afraid to
stop and address her. So on she went, leaning
on her hazel-staff, with her mantle thrown over
her head and stooping form ; and in her left
hand nothing but a little book, which, during
her sickness, a young minister, a follower of
John Knox, had taught her to read.

She left the town soon, and reached the open
country. It was already so far dusk, that the
sheep along the hill-side and in the fields looked
like white dots moving about; while every
where was heard the tinkle of the bells, and the
whistle of the shepherds, coming home.

Marion distinguifihed a voice she knew, and
hid herself by the dike-side, until those who
were approaching had passed by. It was her

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A mother's love. 155

husband and her three sons, returning from
their daily labor on their farm. There came
into her heart a terror — a longing, lest per-
chance she should never see them again, these
dear ones — though by a natural yet myste-
rious instinct not held so dear as the one lost,
who by her must yet be saved.

She dared not speak to them, lest they should
overrule her plan ; but she watched them with
eager eyes, and followed them a little distance,
stealing along under the shadow of the dike
and of the rowan trees that grew beside. She
listened to their merry and unconscious voices.

"Eh," said Hughie. "I hear a soun' o*
footsteps close by."

" It's naething but a bit maukin loupin' out
of a whin-bush. Are ye feared for the like o>
that ? " answered the father, laughing. ^

" I'm no feared, father ; but it's the Eve o'
Roodmass, when there's uncanny folk abroad,"
whispered the boy.

"Then we'll e'en gae hame, lads, for the
gudewife's sake. She's easy fleyed, and she
has aye a waefu' heart tabear.. We mauatak
tent o' the puir mither.**

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156 AUOE LEABMONT, OB

" Ay, ay," echoed the sons, moving forward
bravely and quickly, and were soon out of
sight.

The mother herself stood by the road-side,
shedding many and mingled tears. But still
her courage failed not, nor did she shrink from
her purpose.

Very soon she came to a place where four
roads met; a spot renowned throughout the
whole neighborhood as being " uncanny.'*
Tradition had faded concerning it — whether
it was the scene of midnight murder, or of
more harmless elfin tryste. Or perhaps the
natural ghostliness of the place added to its ill
name. It was an open moorland, except where
a row of tall firs stood up, black sentinels, right
against the sky ; the wind in their tops keeping
up a distant soughing peculiar to trees of that
species. There is not a more eerie sound in
nature, than the breeze passing through the
high, dark branches of a fir-wood.

Marion leant against one of the stems, ex-
hausted, but not afraid. The gloaming was
fast melting into night; the gloomy, cloudy
night of early spring, when after the brief hour

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A mother's loye. 167

of sunset, all things frequently seem passing
again into dreariness and winter cold. The
lonely woman began to shiver where she stood ;
and a heavy rain-cloud gathering over the moor,
fell down in showers, drenching her even
.through her close mantle. All the moor van-
ished in haze ; there was neither star nor moon.
She could discern nothing except the near
trees, which in the mistiness around oftentimes
seemed to stir and change their places, like
great giants walking about in the night.

And yet — even yet — the mother was not
afrstid.

She had waited a long time ; so long that she
could have thought the night almost past, ex-
cept that she knew the moon would rise at mid-
night, and it had not risen yet. Every thing
was quite dark.

At length she saw a bright light dancing
across the moor, at the eastern horizon.

" It is but the moon-rise," Marion said, and
her heart grew colder than ever with disap-
pointment and fear. " Wae's me ! my hope
is gane. Alice, Alice, I hae tint ye forever-

mair

!'»

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158 AUCE LEASMONT, OB

Thus she, lamenting, hid her eyes from the
light that grew broader and deeper, though no
orb appeared to rise. When Marion looked
again, there was a long stream of radiance glit-
tering across the moor ; and faintly approaching
came another music than that of the wind in
the fir-tops. It was — as a Nithsdale woman,
who once heard the like, used to express it —
" like the soun' o' a farawa' psalm."

Marion Learmont, even amidst her joy, trem-
bled at the crisis that was approaching ; for she
knew that what she now saw and heard was the
Fairies' Raid.

She crouclied down behind the tree, mutter-
ing sometimes the unintelligible Av'es and
Credos of her ancient faith ; and then again
bursting out into the heart-felt prayers taught
by John Knox and his brethren. Alternately
she clutched the Bible, or, forgetting herself,
made the familiar sign of the cross. Mingled
and strange were all her religious forms ; but
there was one thing that could not err, the in-
tensity of derotion in her heart. And never
once did she take her straining eyes from the

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A mother's love. 159

sight on which was concentrated all her energy,
courage, and hope.

Nearer and nearer came the light, and sepa-
rated itself into individual forms. Never had
Marion Le^xmont seen such a glittering show.
The elves rode one by one, men and women
alternately. Their steeds, of all colors, were
caparisoned with gold and jewels, that sparkled
at every motion. They themselves Were as fair
to behold as when the young mother had seen
them gathering in her chamber, on that fatal
night of Alice's birth. She noticed as before
their green kirtles, and their yellow hair, that
while they rode streamed behind in a long train
of light.

For the mortal mother beheld the elves but
as mortals do, until they have abode in Fairy-
land long enough to learn that all this show is
but outward glamour, nothingness, and vanity.

The cavalcade neareoT the tree, and Marion
watched in agony for the first that should pass
by. It was an elf, taller than the rest, whom
she knew to be the Queen of Fairies. After-
wards, scores upon scores of elfin-horsemen rode
near her ; but the mother's eye lingered upon

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160 AUOE LEABMONT) OB

none. No doubt had she in her search ; through
all that disguise she could not mistake her own
child.

Each after the other, the whole train passed
by, until there remained but one, who rode
slower than the rest, and neither by voice nor
merry gesture urged her palfrey on. She sat,
amidst all the brilliant show of her attire, quite
passive and silent. Only as her horse was
sweeping past the cross-roads, she turned and
leaned sideways, showing distinctly her pale face
and eager eyes. It was Alice herself.

Quick as lightning, strong as though she had
never been sick„ the mother leaped forward and
dragged her child down from the palfrey, in-
stantly it melted away, and lay, a withered
bramble-bough, in the middle of the path. A
loud wail ran across the moor — the fairy pa-
geant vanished, and all was perfect silence.

For several minutes fliis hush lasted ; during
which neither mother nor daughter spoke.
Marion was conscious of nothing save that she
held in her arms her living, breathing Alice.
After a little she loosened her clasp, trying to
look in her daughter's face.

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A mother's love. 161

" Ah, hold me fast — let me not go," mur-
mured the girl, in terror.

And even while she spoke, there gradually
arose across the moor a whirlwind of unearthly
sounds — loud voices, screams, and laughter.
It came nearer, eddying round on every side,
dinning in Marion's ears so close that she started
as though strange things were clutching at her ;
but nothing was visible."

" Hold me fast — fast," was all Alice's cry,

" I will baud ye fast, my bairn that I bore,"
the mother answered, firmly. And so they
stood, clinging together in the midst of that
elAritch rout, the more fearful that it was only
heard, not seen.

The blackness of the night changed a little,
and the great round moon rose up from the
edge of the moor. As soon as it gave sufficient
light to distinguish objects, Marion gained some
comfort. But her terror returned, when in the
shadow cast by the bole of the opposite fir trees
she saw something leaning. It was a human
form, the very image of herself, except the face,
which was hid.

" Turn your cloak, mother, and it will vnn-
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162 AUCB LEABMONT, OB

ish," whispered Alice. " But 0, do not let go
your hold of me."

Marion did as her child desired, and the illu-
sion melted away.

This was the first of the elfin spells, through
the fierce ordeal of which the mother passed that
night. The next trial was far more horrible to
bear.

Suddenly, in her very arms, the soft form of
Alice seemed changing to that of a wild beast.
"Hold me close, and I'll do ye no harm,**
screamed the voice, which alone was human.
And still the brave mother held fast her own,
until again she felt the warm maiden-flesh beat-
ing against her bosom.

After that, through every horror that elfin mal-
ice could plan, amidst transformations uncouth,
loathsome, or terrible, did Marion Learmont
keep her treasure glose embraced. Sometimes
she seemed to enfold a goblin shape, or had a
slimy serpent crawling on her breast, or clasped
with her bare arms a red-hot bar of iron ; but
through each change, foul or frightful, the
mother knew and held fast to her own child.

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A mother's love. 168

Many another mother through all human trials
has done the same.

At last the sky, which except just at moon-
rise had been overcast all night, was brightened
at the east with a streak of yellow and pale
green. The elfin clamor began to die away in
the dawn.

" Bide a wee, bide a wee," sighed the ex-
hausted mother, as after the last transformation
her daughter lay almost like a corse in her arms.
" While I hae life I winna tine my bairn."

Ere she ceased speaking, there came a sound
like a clap of thunder, mingled with howlings
that might have risen from the bottomless pit.
All around where Marion stood was flame, and
it was a living flame that swayed to and fro in
her arms.

" Hae pity on us, Qod ! " shrieked the
mother aloud. Instantly the thunder ceased,
the jet of flame sank down, and Marion held to
her breast her young daughter, who lay there,
pallid, trembling, cold, — and naked as when
she had come into the world, a helpless babe.

" Throw your mantle over me, and then I will
be safe and all your own," feebly said Alice.

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164

The mother did so, taking oflF some of her own
garments and wrapping her child close. Then
all the eldritch sounds died away in distance ;
the light broadened across the moor, and all
the earth lay in the stillness and freshness of
daybreak.

Marion and her daughter sank down together,
and leaning against the fir tree's bole, kissed
one another and wept. Suddenly, in one of the
topmost branches was heard the twitter of a
waking bird.

" It is a' true, and ye're my ain — thanks be
to the gude God ! " cried Marion, in a choking
voice. " Let us arise, my dochter, and gae
hame thegither."

Across the yet dark fields they took their
way, the mother leaning on Alice's arm. They
passed through the silent town of Melrose, where
all were still fast asleep — tired fathers resting
after their work, and mothers lying with their
little children round. But there was never a
mother like this mother.

Not a creature they met in all the street, or
beyond it, until they came to their own door.
Then, creeping along the side of the byre, Marion

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A mother's LOYE. 165

Learmont saw something which seemed through
the misty morning-light to foe a human form,
all fluttering in gaudy-colored rags. And a
cracked Yoice, that might have been sweet when
young, and still had a kind of wild pathos,
startled her by its old familiar sounds, now un-
heard for many years. It sang a fragment of
meaningless rhyme, which yet had a certain
method in it.

« Simmer and winter baith gae round,

Spak the mither wren to her baimies three ;
Unt was tint, and foimd is found —
I'U hap my held saft in my ain countrie."

^' It's Daft Simmie come back, him that was
hunted far and near for stealing my bairn.
He's at his sangs again. Wonderfu' are the
ways o' the Lord ! "

And her thoughts went back to old times, re-
membering how all things had worked together
for good, until her heart was mute for very
thankfulness.

As her feet touched the door-sill, the sun rose
upon the earth ; she turned a minute to gaze at
the brightening Abbey-tower and the three sum-
mits of Eildon hill, and all the land around,

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166 ALICE LEABMONT.

wakening up into the glory of a new day. Then
she looked at Alice, who stood near, her un-
earthly beauty chastened into that which was
merely human — the loveliness of love itself.

" My ain bairn, my ae dochter ! that was dead
and is alive again — was lost and found ! " cried
Marion, falling on her neck.

She rested there a little space, then took her
daughter's hand, and with great joyfulness they
two then went together into the house.

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THE BORROWER WILL BE CHARGED
AN OVERDUE FEE IF THIS BOOK IS
NOT RETURNED TO THE LIBRARY ON
OR BEFORE THE LAST DATE STAMPED
BELOW. HON-RECEIPT OF OVERDUE
NOTICES DOES NOT EXEMPT THE
BORROWER FROM OVERDUE FEES-

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