o wish?"

"I 'm going to wish to meet the Fairy Queen! Just think how beautiful
she must be! dressed all in green, with gold bells on her bridle, and
riding a white horse shod with gold! I think I see her galloping through
the woods and out across the hill, over the heather.'

"But you will go away with her, and never see me any more," said Jean.

"No, I won't; or if I do, I 'll come back, with such a horse, and a
sword with a gold handle. I'm going to the Wishing Well. Come on!"

Jean did not like to say "No," and off they went.

Randal and Jean started without taking anything with them to eat. They
were afraid to go back to the house for food. Randal said they would be
sure to find something somewhere. The Wishing Well was on the top of a
hill between Yarrow and Tweed. So they took off their shoes, and waded
the Tweed at the shallowest part, and then they walked up the green
grassy bank on the other side, till they came to the burn of Peel. Here
they passed the old square tower of Peel, and the shepherd dogs came out
and barked at them. Randal threw a stone at them, and they ran away with
their tails between their legs.

[Illustration: Page 265]

"Don't you think we had better go into Peel, and get some bannocks to
eat on the way, Randal?" said Jean.

But Randal said he was not hungry; and, besides, the people at Peel
would tell the Fairnilee people where they had gone.

"We'll _wish_ for things to eat when we get to the Wishing Well," said
Randal. "All sorts of good things--cold venison pasty, and everything
you like."

So they began climbing the hill, and they followed the Peel burn. It ran
in and out, winding this way and that, and when they did get to the
top of the hill, Jean was very tired and very hungry. And she was very
disappointed. For she expected to see some wonderful new country at her
feet, and there was only a low strip of sunburnt grass and heather, and
then another hill-top! So Jean sat down, and the hot sun blazed on her,
and the flies buzzed about her and tormented her.

"Come on, Jean," said Randal; "it must be over the next hill!"

So poor Jean got up and followed him, but he walked far too fast for
her. When she reached the crest of the next hill, she found a great
cairn, or pile of grey stones; and beneath her lay, far, far below, a
deep valley covered with woods, and a stream running through it that she
had never seen before.

That stream was the Yarrow.

Randal was nowhere in