uld not give his secret for
nothing--and why should he, to a stranger who had been uncivil to him?
Besides, as he observed truly enough, those who are curious may pay for
their curiosity, so if Gilbert wanted to know how to gather horses thus
easily, he must hand him over all the money he had received that
morning, and give him his nag into the bargain. Gilbert thought these
demands exorbitant, and tried to haggle with the stranger, but Sandy
proved too much for him, Northumbrian though he was--and the young
farmer finished by agreeing to his conditions, and after paying down
the money, brought the horse out of the stable.

"Now I'll tell you," said the Scotchman. "May be you've heard of our
late poet Burns, just over the border? Well, he told of a shepherd lad
who years and years ago learnt of some wise ones, that if you pull a
stem of ragwort, and sit astride it, and cry out: 'Up! Horsie!' it will
carry you through the air."

"And have you tried it and succeeded?" eagerly inquired Gilbert.

"Ay--for that shepherd lad was myself, and many a pleasant jaunt have I
enjoyed by that same means," said Sandy, with twinkling eyes. "Only you
must not attempt it till the moon is full, or the horse might throw an
inexperienced rider."

Delighted at having learnt such a secret, and without pausing to wonder
how, if the shepherd had lived so many years before Burns, he could
still be alive, Gilbert inquired what places he went to?

"I went to Elf-land," said the Scotchman.

Gilbert was not learned--indeed he could scarcely read--and he
confessed he did not know the road thither; but the stranger assured him
he need only express the wish to go, and the ragwort would take him.
They then parted, and the shepherd rode away with the horse, after
stowing away the money in his pouch, while Gilbert went home as best he
might.

After waiting impatiently for the full moon, Gilbert at last went out
one night to work the charm, and to his great delight, had no sooner
bestrided the ragwort, and said: "Up! Horsie!" than it bore him at a
pretty smart pace to Elf-land. Nevertheless it just began to dawn as he
reached his journey's end, and dismounted. He had not proceeded far,
before he perceived a splendid castle on an eminence, and numerous
flocks browsing on the surrounding hills. But what arrested his
attention still more was a very lovely woman, superbly drest, sitting at
the foot of the hill, playing on an ivory fiddle of exquisite