'Honest folks like me! How do ye ken whether I am honest, or what I am?
I may be the deevil himsell for what ye ken; for he has power to come
disguised like an angel of light; and besides he is a prime fiddler. He
played a sonata to Corelli, ye ken.'

There was something odd in this speech, and the tone in which it was
said. It seemed as if my companion was not always in his constant mind,
or that he was willing to try if he could frighten me. I laughed at the
extravagance of his language, however, and asked him in reply, if he
was fool enough to believe that the foul fiend would play so silly a
masquerade.

'Ye ken little about it--little about it,' said the old man, shaking his
head and beard, and knitting his brows, 'I could tell ye something about
that.'

What his wife mentioned of his being a tale-teller, as well as
a musician, now occurred to me; and as you know I like tales of
superstition, I begged to have a specimen of his talent as we went
along.

'It is very true,' said the blind man, 'that when I am tired of scraping
thairm or singing ballants, I whiles mak a tale serve the turn among
the country bodies; and I have some fearsome anes, that make the auld
carlines shake on the settle, and the bits o' bairns skirl on their
minnies out frae their beds. But this that I am gaun to tell you was
a thing that befell in our ain house in my father's time--that is, my
father was then a hafflins callant; and I tell it to you that it may be
a lesson to you, that are but a young, thoughtless chap, wha ye draw up
wi' on a lonely road; for muckle was the dool and care that came o't to
my gudesire.'

He commenced his tale accordingly, in a distinct narrative tone of voice
which he raised and depressed with considerable skill; at times sinking
almost into a whisper, and turning his clear but sightless eyeballs upon
my face, as if it had been possible for him to witness the impression
which his narrative made upon my features. I will not spare you a
syllable of it, although it be of the longest; so I make a dash--and
begin

WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE.

Ye maun have heard of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of that Ilk, who lived in
these parts before the dear years. The country will lang mind him; and
our fathers used to draw breath thick if ever they heard him named. He
was out wi' the Hielandmen in Montrose's time; and again he was in the
hills wi' Glencairn in the saxteen hundred and fifty-twa; and sae when
King Charles the Sec