JEANIE sat down beside the well. She wished her three wishes: to see
Randal, to win him back from Fairyland, and to help the people in
the famine. Then she knelt on the grass, and looked down into the
well-water. At first she saw nothing but the smooth black water, with
little waves trembling in it. Then the water began to grow bright
within, as if the sun was shining far, far below. Then it grew as clear
as crystal, and she saw through it, like a glass, into a new country--a
beautiful country with a wide green plain, and in the midst of the plain
a great castle, with golden flags floating from the tops of all the
towers. Then she heard a curious whispering noise that thrilled and
murmured, as if the music of all the trees that the wind blows through
the world were in her ears, as if the noise of all the waves of every
sea, and the rustling of heather-bells on every hill, and the singing
of all birds were sounding, low and sweet, far, far away. Then she saw
a great company of knights and ladies, dressed in green, ride up to the
castle; and one knight rode apart from the rest, on a milk-white steed.
They all went into the castle gates; but this knight rode slowly and
sadly behind the others, with his head bowed on his breast.
Then the musical sounds were still, and the castle and the plain seemed
to wave in the water. Next they quite vanished, and the well grew dim,
and then grew dark and black and smooth as it had been before. Still
she looked, and the little well bubbled up with sparkling foam, and so
became still again, like a mirror, till Jeanie could see her own face
in it, and beside her face came the reflection of another face, a young
man’s, dark, and sad, and beautiful. The lips smiled at her, and then
Jeanie knew it was Randal. She thought he must be looking over her
shoulder, and she leaped up with a cry, and glanced round.
But she was all alone, and the wood about her was empty and silent. The
light had gone out of the sky, which was pale like silver, and overhead
she saw the evening star.
Then Jeanie thought all was over. She had seen Randal as if it had been
in a glass, and she hardly knew him: he was so much older, and his face
was so sad. She sighed, and turned to go away over the hills, back, to
Fairnilee.
But her feet did not seem to carry her the way she wanted to go. It
seemed as if something within her were moving her in a kind of dream.
She felt herself going on through the forest, she did not know where.
Deeper into the wood she went, and now it grew so dark that she saw
scarce anything; only she felt the fragrance of briar roses, and it
seemed to her that she was guided towards these roses. Then she knew
there was a hand in her hand, though she saw nobody, and the hand seemed
to lead her on. And she came to an open place in the forest, and there
the silver light fell clear from the sky, and she saw a great shadowy
rose tree, covered with white wild roses.
The hand was still in her hand, and Jeanie began to wish for nothing so
much in the world as to gather some of these roses. She put out her hand
and she plucked one, and there before her stood a strange creature--a
dwarf, dressed in yellow and red, with a very angry face.
“Who are you,” he cried, “that pluck my roses without my will?”
“And who are _you?_” said Jeanie, trembling, “and what right have you
on the hills of this world?”
Then she made the holy sign of the cross, and the face of the elf grew
black, and the light went out of the sky.
She only saw the faint glimmer of the white flowers, and a kind of
shadow standing where the dwarf stood.
“I bid you tell me,” said Jeanie, “whether you are a Christian man, or
a spirit that dreads the holy sign,” and she crossed him again.
Now all grew dark as the darkest winter’s night. The air was warm and
deadly still, and heavy with the scent of the fairy flowers.
In the blackness and the silence, Jeanie made the sacred sign for the
third time. Then a clear fresh wind blew on her face, and the forest
boughs were shaken, and the silver light grew and gained on the
darkness, and she began to see a shape standing where the dwarf had
stood. It was far taller than the dwarf and the light grew and grew,
and a star looked down out of the night, and Jean saw Randal standing by
her. And she kissed him, and he kissed her, and he put his hand in hers,
and they went out of the wood together. They came to the crest of the
hill and the cairn. Far below them they saw the Tweed shining through
an opening among the trees, and the lights in the farm of Peel, and
they heard the nightbirds crying, and the bells of the sheep ringing
musically as they wandered through the fragrant heather on the hills.
[Illustration: Page 287]
[Illustration: Chapter Ten]