"I'm yet in the flesh, but how lang I'll be in't is uncertain. Sic a night as this, wi' will-o'-wisps, and fiery dragons, and lang-nebbit things, mortal een never beheld!"

So saying, Willie removed his scone bonnet, undid the iron skewer which fastened his grey plaid over his bosom, placed his ellwand, which answered the twofold purpose of walking-stick and measure, within reach of his hand; and occupying the offered seat, held his bonnet to his brow and prayed, or seemed to pray.

"An' hae I got within biggit waas at last," he muttered, "and amang kind and hospitable hearts? O Willie, be thankful, and mair than thankful, for ye're reserved for some blessed purpose yet, some visible working out o' the ways of Providence!"

"I wad advise ye, then," said one of his audience, "to get a langer ellwand."

"And O Willie man!" exclaimed another, "tell us what ye saw, and where it happened, and how it began. We hac all had our experiences this blessed night-ay, troth atweel hae we!"

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Jenny," said my mother, "gie the bodie a dram. It will be mair comfortable than a pint o' flowmosswater, and help him wi' his tale."

"Weel, then, ye see," said Willie, wiping his lips and setting down the empty glass, "I had come through Barjarg Whins, and had amaist entered the road that leads alang the side of Flaughter Moss-a road of nae gude name for poor packmen, ye ken. The sun was hardly down, for I saw his light on the top of Queensberry Hill; and there was a tranquillity in the air which made the land look delightful. I set my ellwand behind me, and tarried a space to look on it. There it lay, the green brae - side, the bonnie blooming heather, and the lang blooming broom · the Flaughter Moss whitened with the cannas

-

beard with the lang stripes of greenwood bordering the Mermaid Burn, that I said to myself, Could the wit o' the Paisley or Glasgow fowk make me a prent for lasses gowns as bonnie as that, and ca't the Corkney pattern, my fortune wad be made. But, lo and behold! the beauty of the scene evanished like a dream. At ae stride came the dark, as the ballad says, which, when interpreted, means that night came and day fled; and then not only did thick darkness come, but a thicker mist came with it. I had to grope my way, for I couldna see the length of my ellwand before me."

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Ay, Willie, man, it maun hae been dark indeed," said Bell Tamlin, who considered herself a sufferer in the matter of Willie's measurements; "for your ellwand is a short ane, as my new kirtle can attest."

6

"There are other reasons for short kirtles, Miss Impudence, than short ellwands," said Willie, bitterly; "but a hale boon o' shearers shanna mar my story, for it is a marvellous one. Weel, as I said, I was obligated to grope my way; but I was na to be lang in darkness, for there came a queer gleam of light, and ere I could bless myself Maister Will-o'-wisp was at my elbow. Wha are ye,' quo I, 'friend?' for I thought it was some kindly body come to shew me through the Flaughter Flow wi' a lantern. Een as I spake away went Willie owre the bonnie heather and velvet grass, that keeps the quagmire as cozie as a blanket. I thought, as I'm a sinner, that it was Bell Tamlin there, wi' her white foot and her scrimpit kirtle. Tak me wi' ye, lass,' I cried, and hoyed after; for, thinks I, where flesh and blood can gang, sae can I. I'm thinking, gudewife, that some kind o' glamour had been cast o'er my een, for I maun say, in my own justification, that the Flaughter Flow, in the gleam of that elfin candle, seemed as safe and as bonnie as Dalswinton Lea when covered wi' witch-gowans. For a step or twa it was pleasant; but I had na gane mae than five when my feet ran through the thin green blanket under which deceitful Nature hides her sores, and up gaed I to the breekband-heads. Kink,' quo Will-o'-wisp, and danced and twinkled aboon me and about me; for it was him, and

"Domme !" exclaimed the Cumbrian, "then our English Jack-alanterns have souls and bodies, for I have heard them laugh like piping bullfinches. Jack's no exhalation, but a merry fellow, who runs twinkling from moss to mire, ducking the drunk, and lighting the sober."

"I was sober," said Willie," and Jack did mair than light me, for he put me up to the middle in the flowmoss, and then walked off with his lantern, and left the world 'to darkness and to me,' as Robin Burns says. How I got out is the miracle. Wit is better than wealth. I thought of my bit pack. Out I pu'd nine ells of the bonniest Monteath red that ever shone-spread it out on the quagmire as I wad do on a lady's tablepu'd out my left foot and set it on it -took out fifteen ells of prime sprig muslin-spread it out, and placed my right foot on that; and then, standing as it were on firm ground, I exerted my powers, and sprang fifteen feet clear owre the flow, and lighted on dry land. Will-o'-wisp had na a laugh for this exploit; and yet he might hae laughed too, for nae sooner did I fly, as it were, out of the deceitful snare, than I broke and ran; and might hae been rinning still, had not the light led me like a string to this friendly door. And glad am I that I have escaped to tell it!" And when he had done, Willie stroked the hair over his brow with his open palm, and said, "I think if a morsel of meat were before me, I might aiblins eat it, and aiblins no."

"But, Willie," said Bell Tamlin, " and did ye leave the web o' bonnie Monteath red in the flow to the whaups?"

With a start of surprise, as if something material had been recalled

to his memory, Willie exclaimed, "Never thought of my Monteath red, nor my Paisley sprig muslin neither, till this precious moment. Weel, weel, let them gang. All that a man hath will he give for his life. A seat in this hospitable mansion is better than a bed in Flaughter Flow, wi' Will-o'-wisp for a bowermaiden fellow. But, doubtless, thae twa bonnie speciments of human skill will be a loss to me of fifty white shillings in the outlay, and the tae half o' the t'other in profits,-a sair loss, a sair loss! But what canna be cured maun be endured."

"But, Willie," said my mother, who seemed to receive his whole story with suspicion in her eye, "it seems marvellous to me that ye have endured all this, and yet your outward man is not a jisp the waur. Yere scone bonnet is spotless; your plaid without a stain; while your hose are as dry as if they had just come out o' your pack. And, speaking of the pack, what have ye done with that? Is it in Flaughter Flow, with your Monteath red and sprig muslin ?"

"'Deed, goodwife," answered Willie, composedly, "if the pack is na there, I watna where it is. And touching my apparel, whilk, as ye observe, is dry and comfortable, ye are right in saying such a thing is marvellous-nay, miraculous, if ye will--and I accept it as a sign that Providence was willing to save an honest soul from the snares of Satan, elf-spunkies, and Will-o'-wisps; nor shall I refrain from citing it as an answer to all-and they are na few --who scoff at my conscience as well as at my ellwand, and call them both scrimp of measure."

"The tale of the night now takes a devout turn," said my mother; "and oh, it does my heart and eyesight gude to see a man sae favoured at my fireside! Doubtless, it is a difficult thing to deal justly and truly in this world, for I hold it to be a sin to wrang oneself as much as it is to wrang one's neighbour; and I aye thought that the young gudewife of Ladlemouth was wranging herself, and righting naebody, when she weighed a pound of butter to Davie Fisher wi' a twa-pound pair of tangs, putting in the tae leg, and letting the tither leg hang out o' the scale.'

"Ye hae touched a delicate matter with delicacy," said Willie; " and I assure all who hears me that I am often in a tremor of fear, when my ellwand gaes along a new web or a piece of riband, lest I should either err against myself by giving owre mickle, or against the buyer thereof by giving too little--both sins in themselves, as ye say, gudewife, equally heinous."

At this moment, Bell Tamlin, who had slipt out unheeded, returned with a loud laugh, and bearing Willie's pack in her hands. "Set him on the highest seat," she exclaimed, "and crown him king of leasing -making. I found his pack snug behind the hallan, wi' diel ae mark of the Will-o'-wisp adventure upon it; and may I gang to the repentance stool instead o' the altar if his braw web o' Monteath red and his braw muslin dress of Paisley sprig are no safe in his wallet instead o' cleeding the Flaughter Flow, to let the sinner, as he called himself, escape."

"If it be as ye say," said Willie, with a smile," then it is the queerest miracle that has yet come to pass in this land; but I maun say, in my ain justification, that sic a night as this maunna be judged by ordinary rules; it's like Bauldy Moffat's corn, that refused to be measured by an established bushel; and further, that since the moment Willie's glamour light came into my een, I hardly ken what I have been saying or doing."

"Morcover," said Bell Tamlin, "we a' ken that a poor packman gets but a cauld reception if he comes to a douce body's fireside without a marvellous or a merry tale to tell, and the shorter his ellwand the longer the story."

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"I'll

Hout, tout, lass!" said Willie, giving her a pinch unseen. measure for you wi' my langest ellwand next time, and gie ye two thumb-breadths to the mends. But I'm saying, I'm neither the first nor the last that will tell a marvellous tale about this sinfu' night,-for I see the thick mist continues,-folk maun try to get hame frae market as well as moor; and here comes another to take up the wondrous tale of Will-o'-wisp Wednesday."

The person whose approach Willie

thus announced came with an unsteady step, and, like one of the heroes in Homer, sent his voice, which was not a little tremulous, before him. "Peace be here!" he said, giving three distinct raps with his Knuckles on the outer door, which stood then, as it usually did in summer and harvest, wide open, and to the wall.

"That's Dominie Davison's knock, Iken by the saftness of his knuckles,” cried Bell Tamlin, whose voice was ever in the van.

"Deed no!" said a second; "it's rather some poor sodger's widow, with twa bairns at her back, and a third at her bosom, begging her bread. I'll gie her a share o' my supper, be she wife or widow. I wonder where Jenny Shanks, of the Lang Vennel, is now, that ran off with Corporal Halliday? I'll aye think weel o' a sodger's wife for poor Jenny's sake."

"Come ben, and welcome, whoever ye be," said my mother, who never turned any one away from her door, "under,' as she said, "the cloud of night; for naebody kenned what might become of them in a land that abounded with peat-pot holes, dunching tups, and wirrikows, and evil spirits-waur nor a'. Come in, and welcome; this is na a night to stand on stepping-stanes, wi' this unhallowed mist in the air, and wi' Willies and elf-candles enow to frighten even a packman into honest courses for a hale week."

The person to whom this was addressed now came forward; but no wanderer-for such he was, though a near neighbour, ever entered a douce 1 man's dwelling in such a disordered trim. All that was imagination in the experience of Willie Corkney were matters of sad reality in the wanderings of Dominie Davison. His parson's grey coat, which, like a hero's mail, was only for great occasions, such as bridals, baptisms, and kirn-suppers, was splashed and soiled from ample skirt to spreading collar, while on its hair buttons, which sat in rows as large as full-grown frogs on breast, and cuff, and on pocketlid, hung the weeds of mire and pool, in bunches, like parsley at a greengrocer's door; his hoddin grey breeks -I use the classic name in obedience to the laws of delicacy laid down by

the ladies of London and New York -with his black-ribbed hose and latched shoes, and his douce, broadbrimmed hat, bore evident marks of having been in both mire and stream. He stared wildly when he came into the light, and was with some difficulty placed in a chair.

"Maister Davison," said my mother, hae ye been diving in the Flaughter Moss, too?"

No," said the dominie, "I've only been swimming in the river." He then retired within himself, as he called his musing moods, which sometimes extended to a stricken hour: all eyes watched the opening of his lips, and all ears listened for the first sounds.

"Oh, sirs," said Bell Tamlin, "but silence be awful."

"Nought is awful," said the dominie, but the presence of Him whom no Christian dare lightly name; and yet I may say that this, though not an awful, is a fearful night. The sound and sough of that deep and darksome river is yet in my ears; the elfish and fiend-like glimmer of the demon's eyes are yet before me, inviting me into the valley and shadow of death; while the ranked grave-stones of Kirmichael kirkyard, with their death's-heads and sand-glasses standing at the heads of their separate graves, like as many ghosts, with Willie's necromantic light dancing on the top of a', are sights which, if I keep my senses, I shall not likely forget soon."

"Whom the Lord loves he chastens," said my mother; "and ye shouldna grumble at being chosen for this signal mark of favour."

"What signifies a douk in a dub, a fleg wi' a lass and a lantern, and the sight of carved skulls and shankbanes ?" said Bell Tamlin. "Had ye met wi' the Laird of Cool's ghost, or the spirit that haunts the castle o' Lagg, and is seen in moonlight looking out at the windows wi' een like saucers and teeth like harrows, ye might hae talked of chastenings!"

"Thou art assuredly a carried and giddy girl," said the dominic; "for the Laird of Cool's ghost and the spirit of Lagg Tower are shadowy and apocryphal things, and unworthy of the consideration of a Christian; they are akin to the delusions and transformations recorded in the vain

verse of the heathen Ovid, whose women are changed into running streams, and men into trees and red deer. But touching this nocturnal light which leads men astray, whether it be a lamp lighted at the fire which Nature never allows to expire in her bosom, or one of the heathen spirits unrebuked from the land by our too-merciful Christianity, or is really a spelk or chip of the plough of Satan kindled for his own purposes, who knows?"

"I hae nae doubt," said one of the bandsmen, "that it is an escaped spirit, as ye jalouse, and doubtless wad say sae were it discreetly questioned; but this can only be speered by a learned man, who kens the Latin tongue it is a spirit of a classic kind, there's na doubt."

"Domme !" muttered the man of Cumberland, "if ever I heard so much nonsense talked in my life about this here Jack-a-lantern!"

"I have heard it mair than averred," said a second bandsman, "that this Will-o'-wisp is a page-light to Satan. I hae seen it with my ain een gaun twinkling out and in on Hallowmass eve, through the deepest dubs of Lochermoss, lending lantern light to the warlocks and witches assembling at Locherbrigg Knowe."

"Truly, my friend," said Dominie Davison, as he returned to the spence, having exchanged the wet for the dry, and warmed his heart with a glass of brandy, which he was assured came legally to his lips, for he was a loyal man, and disliked smuggling,— "Truly, my friend, to be a man still in a state of black nature, unenlightened with the lamp of antique learning, ye have stricken at the very root o' the matter, as ye shall hear, if, peradventure, ye will listen to my story."

All eyes were fixed at once on Master Davison; the old sat still, only shedding their locks from their ears, that no word might escape; while the young gathered round him in a ring, and stood with lips apart, with looks of mingled curiosity and terror.

"Ye must know," said the dominie, "that I did not indow myself in these my best habiliments that I might have a meeting with this demon-light, and get them stained and polluted in the Flaughter Flow; but I put them on in order that I

might partake of the infusion of that eastern and savoury weed called tea with the widow of him who once lived in Drumbreg, and who loveth to hold discourse with douce and learned men. As I came down by the side of the Routing Burn, I was thinking what the lands of Drumbreg might, in good hands, be worth per annum; when all at once, at one step as it were, this thick and vapourish mist came down. I stood stone still; I held up my bone-headed staff atween me and the mist, but I could not see it. 'This is really awful!' I said aloud."

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Nought is awful," said Bell Tamlin, but the presence o'

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"Whisht! whisht!" exclaimed the dominie. "Awful is not for a light lip that is singing psalms ae minute and committing folly with Sandie Kissock the next."

"But it will do weel enough," persisted Bell," for your grave lip, which the dame of Drumbreg declares has mair life in 't than there is in the hale Latin tongue."

"For gudesake, Bell, be quiet," said one of the bandsmen," and I'll gie ye a kiss mysel when my beard is off."

"That wad put me in mind of the skulls and shank - banes which the dominie saw in his dream," said Bell; 66 sae he may as weel go on wi'

his story.

"Well," continued the dominie, "I said, when the mist fell so thick that the hand might have groped it, and that when I held up my thumb I could not see it before me, I stood stone still. But I soon saw something in the mist which came over me like a spell: at first, it seemed a round spot, like the wraith of a dipped candle struggling to shine,— I could not take my eyes from it. It grew larger and larger, and brighter and brighter; and then it ran round about like one of those whirlygig lights at illuminations, and as it ran round my senses ran with it. But I must have followed it; for when it stood still, I saw by the shattered walls and grey headstones that I was at the auld kirkyard of Kirmichael. The walls looked as if the very rents would speak, and the hard stones as though they would find a tongue. 'There must be a spirit of evil in that light,' said I to myself; and while thinking this, I thought the

light laughed. 'Can a cold exhalation laugh like a hyæna?' I said; but I had better have held my tongue, for whisk it started from the kirkyard, and round and round it reeled and whirled, like Dame Drumbreg when she crosses partners in the dance. I looked, and better looked; and I must have moved, though I did not feel myself moving,—for I soon was up to the armpits in Flaughter Flow; and still the elfin light blazed and whirled and whirled, and danced before me, making the treacherous moss, with all its beard of canna, look like a deal floor chalked to dance upon. 'Curse thee for a wicked spirit!' I said; but in all this sad expedition of mine, I never spake but for my own harm, for the spirit of evil laughed louder than before; and when I tried to get my legs out of the flowmoss, I felt as if something more powerful than aught of this earth took me by the cuff of the neck, and turned me round and round in the mire, like a mill-wheel. I got out, but I cannot tell ye how,-for I'm thinking there was an hour or so of this disastrous night that I knew not what I was about. When I came to myself, I was out of the Flow, it's true; but I was shanking it away to this accursed Will-o'-wisp that I should say soas if he had been a bagpiper, with a charm in his drone. At last I came to what seemed the brae-side above my own little domicile, and followed the demon-light down to what I thought was the Minnow Ford, which we step through on three stones as we go to the kirk. I was about to take a step; but it was the will of God, that all at once a light came from the sky, and shewed me the river broad and deep, and the charm was removed from my ears, and I heard the deep and drowning plunge of its waters. I started back, and, falling on my knees, thanked the Power above for my deliverance from the demon; and with that the cursed spirit filled all the air with laughter, and vanished."

All who heard this legend admitted that it surpassed all that tradition had recorded of the exploits of this extraordinary luminary; and that in honour of the dominie's adventures-he called them trialsit should be called WILL-O'-WISP WEDNESDAY.