Folk Tales of Scotland Read Online Free PDF

house into the wood of
Cuthilldorie, where she was found on the very lip of the Black Well. In the air was heard a lilting:
    ‘O we’ll come back again, my honey, my hert,
    We’ll come back again, my ain kind dearie;
    And you will mind upon a time
    When we met in the wood at the Well so wearie!’
    The lassie grew up to be by far the bonniest lass in all the countryside. Everything went well at the mill.
    One dark night there came a woodcock with a glowing tinder in its beak, and set fire to the mill. Everything was burnt and the miller and his wife were left without a thing in the world. To make
matters worse, who should come along next day but the old Highlander who had lent them the silver, demanding payment.
    Now, there was a wee old man in the wood of Cuthilldorie beside the Black Well, who would never stay in a house if he could help it. In the winter he went away, nobody knew
where. He was an ugly bogle, not more than two and a half feet high.
    He had been seen only three times in fifteen years since he came to the place, for he always flew up out of sight when anybody came near him. But if you crept cannily through the wood after
dark, you might have heard him playing with the water, and singing the same song:
    ‘O when will you come, my honey, my hert,
    O when will you come, my ain kind dearie;
    For don’t you mind upon the time
    We met in the wood at the Well so wearie?’
    Well, the night after the firing of the mill, the miller’s daughter wandered into the wood alone, and wandered and wandered till she came to the Black Well. Then the wee
bogle gripped her and jumped about singing:
    ‘O come with me, my honey, my hert,
    O come with me, my ain kind dearie;
    For don’t you mind upon the time
    We met in the wood at the Well so wearie?’
    With that he made her drink three double handfuls of witched water, and away they flew on a flash of lightning. When the poor lass opened her eyes, she was in a palace, all gold and silver and
diamonds, and full of fairies.
    The King and Queen of the Fairies invited her to stay, and said she would be well looked after. But if she wanted to go home again, she must never tell anybody where she had been or what she had
seen.
    She said she wanted to go home, and promised to do as she was told. Then the King said:
    ‘The first stranger you meet, give him brose.’
    ‘Give him bannocks,’ said the Queen.
    ‘Give him butter,’ said her King.
    ‘Give him a drink of the Black Well water,’ they both said.
    Then they gave her twelve drops of liquid in a wee green bottle, three drops for the brose, three for the bannocks, three for the butter and three for the Black Well water.
    She took the green bottle in her hand, and suddenly it was dark. She was flying through the air, and when she opened her eyes she was at her own doorstep. She slipped away to bed, glad to be
home again, and said nothing about where she had been or what she had seen.

    Next morning, before the sun was up, there came a rap, rap, rap, three times at the door. The sleepy lass looked out and saw an old beggar-man, who began to sing:
    ‘O open, the door, my honey, my hert,
    O open the door, my ain kind dearie;
    For don’t you mind upon the time
    We met in the wood at the Well so wearie?’
    When she heard that, she said nothing, and opened the door. The old beggar came in singing:
    ‘O gie me my brose, my honey, my hert,
    O gie me my brose, my ain kind dearie;
    For don’t you mind upon the time
    We met in the wood at the Well so wearie?’
    The lassie made a bicker of brose for the beggar, not forgetting the three drops of water from the green bottle. As he was supping the brose the old beggar vanished, and there in his place was
the big Highlander who had lent silver to her father, the miller, and he was singing:
    ‘O gie me my bannocks, my honey, my hert,
    O gie me my bannocks, my ain kind dearie;
    For don’t you mind upon the time
    We met in the wood at the Well so wearie?’
    She baked him