smiles were gone. Lone and sad was she, all with longing for her little elfin knight.

Little food would Janet eat in these days, little heed would she take of the gowns she wore. Her yellow hair hung down uncombed, unbraided around her sad, pale face.

Janet had been used to join in the games her four-and-twenty maidens played. She had run the quickest, tossed the ball the highest, nor had any been more full of glee than she.

Now the maidens might play as they listed, little did the lady Janet care.

When evening fell, her four-and-twenty ladies would play their games of chess. Many a game had Janet won in bygone days.

Now the ladies might win or lose as they pleased, little did the lady Janet care. Her heart was away on the plain of Carterhaugh with her little wee elfin knight, and soon she herself would be there.

Once more the moonbeams peeped in at her lattice window, and Janet smiled, put on her fairest gown, and combed her yellow locks. She was off and away to Carterhaugh.[1]

She reached the moor, she ran to the well, and there as before, there, stood the steed of the little elfin man.

And Janet put out her hand and plucked a red red rose, but ere she had plucked another, close beside her stood the young Tamlane.

'Why do ye pluck my roses?' asked the little elf man. But Janet had not come to talk about the roses, and she paid no heed to his question.

'Tell me, Tamlane,' said the lady Janet, 'tell me, have ye always been a little elfin man? Have ye never, in days gone by, been to the holy chapel, and have ye never had made over you the sign of the Holy Cross?'

'Indeed now, Janet, the truth will I tell!' cried the young Tamlane.

Then the lady Janet listened, and the lady Janet wept as the little wee knight told her how he had been carried away by the Queen of the Fairies.

But yet a stranger tale he told to the maiden.

'Ere I was carried off to Fairyland, Janet,' said young Tamlane, 'we played as boy and girl in the old castle grounds, and well we loved each other as we played together in those merry merry days of long ago. Ye do not forget, Janet?'

Then back into the lady Janet's mind stole the memory of her childhood's merry days, and of the little lad who had shared her toys and played her games. Together they had made the walls of the old castle ring with their laughter.

No, the lady Janet had not forgotten, and she knew that now, as in the days of long ago, she loved the young Tamlane.

'Tell me,' she said, 'tell me how ye do spend your day in Fairyland?'

'In earth or air I dwell as pleases me the best'

'Blithe and gay is the life we lead,' cried the little wee knight. 'There is no sickness, no pain of any kind in Fairyland, Janet.

'In earth or air I dwell as pleases me the best. I can leave this little body of mine an it pleases me, and come back to it an I will. I am small, as you see me now, but when I will, I grow so small that a nut-shell is my home, a rosebud my bed. But I can grow big as well, Janet, so big that I needs must make my home in some lofty hall.

'Hither and thither we flit, bathe in the streams, frolic in the wind, play with the sunbeams.

'Never would I wish to leave Fairyland, Janet, were it not that at the end of each seven years an evil spirit comes to carry one of us off to his dark abode. And I, so fair and fat am I, I fear that I shall be chosen by the Evil one.

'But weep not, Janet; an you wish to bring me back to the land of mortals, I will e'en show you how that may be done. Little time is there to lose, for to-night is Hallowe'en, and this same night must the deed be done.

'On Hallowe'en, at the midnight hour, the fairy court will ride a mile beyond Carterhaugh to the cross at Milestone. Wait for me there, Janet, and ye will win your own true knight.'

'But many a knight will ride amid the fairy train. How shall I know you, my little wee man?' cried Janet.

'Neither among the first nor among the second company shall ye seek for me,' said young Tamlane. 'Only when ye see the third draw nigh give heed, Janet, for among them ye will find me.

'Not on the black horse, nor yet on the brown horse, shall I ride. Let them pass, and keep ye quiet. But as the milk-white steed goes by, seize ye the bridle, Janet, and pull me down, and keep your arms ever around me. For on the milk-white steed I ride.

'On my right hand ye will see a glove, my left will be uncovered. Now, by these signs, ye will know your own true knight.

'Hold me fast, Janet, hold me fast, as you pull me down from my milk-white steed. For while your arms are around me, the fairy folk will change me into fearful shapes.

'Into an adder, and into a snake they will change me. Yet, an ye love me, Janet, fear ye nought, but hold me fast.

'They will change me into a lion, and into a bear. Yet, as I love you, Janet, fear ye nought, but hold me fast.

'A toad, an eel I shall become, yet do not let me slide from your arms, Janet, but hold me fast.

'But, an the fairy folk change me into a blazing fagot, or a bar of hot iron, then throw me far from you, Janet, into the cold, clear well, throw me with all your speed.

'There will I change into your own true knight, Janet, and ye shall throw over me your mantle of green velvet.'

Dark was the night and full of gloom as the lady Janet hastened to the cross at Milestone, but her heart was glad and full of light. She would see her own true knight in mortal form before the dawn of Hallowday.

It was between the hours of twelve and one o'clock when Janet stood alone at the spot where the fairy train would pass.

Fearsome it was there alone in the gloom, but the lady Janet was heedful of nought. She had but to wait, to listen. Yet not a sound did she hear, save only the wind as it whistled through the long grass.

Not a sound save the wind did she hear? Ah yes, now strange noises were blown to her eager ears. The bells on fairy bridles tinkled, the music of the tiny fairy band piped each moment more clear.

Janet looked, and by the light of Will o' Wisp she could just catch sight of their little oaten pipes. Shrill were the notes they blew on these, but softer were the sounds they blew through tiny hemlock pipes. Then deeper came the tones of the bog-reeds and large hemlock, and Janet, looking, saw the little green folk draw nigh.

How merry the music was, how glad and good! Never was known a fairy yet who sang or played of aught but joy and mirth.

The first company of the little folk passed Janet as she stood patient, watchful by the cross; the second passed, and then there came the third.

'The black steed! Let it go,' said Janet to herself.

'The brown steed! It matters not to me, she whispered.