scorched with flame.'

"And a flood of light, but not so gross as a common fire, which ascended
to heaven and filled all the court before the house, amply justified the
good-wife's suspicions. But to the terrors of fire Sandie was as
immovable as he was to the imaginary groans of the barren wife of Laird
Laurie; and he held his wife, and threatened the weight of his right
hand--and it was a heavy one--to all who ventured abroad, or even
unbolted the door. The neighing and prancing of horses, and the
bellowing of cows, augmented the horrors of the night; and to any one who
only heard the din, it seemed that the whole onstead was in a blaze, and
horses and cattle perishing in the flame. All wiles, common or
extraordinary, were put in practice to entice or force the honest farmer
and his wife to open the door; and when the like success attended every
new stratagem, silence for a little while ensued, and a long, loud, and
shrilling laugh wound up the dramatic efforts of the night. In the
morning, when Laird Macharg went to the door, he found standing against
one of the pilasters a piece of black ship oak, rudely fashioned into
something like human form, and which skilful people declared would have
been clothed with seeming flesh and blood, and palmed upon him by elfin
adroitness for his wife, had he admitted his visitants. A synod of wise
men and women sat upon the woman of timber, and she was finally ordered
to be devoured by fire, and that in the open air. A fire was soon made,
and into it the elfin sculpture was tossed from the prongs of two pairs
of pitchforks. The blaze that arose was awful to behold; and hissings
and burstings and loud cracklings and strange noises were heard in the
midst of the flame; and when the whole sank into ashes, a drinking-cup of
some precious metal was found; and this cup, fashioned no doubt by elfin
skill, but rendered harmless by the purification with fire, the sons and
daughters of Sandie Macharg and his wife drink out of to this very day.
Bless all bold men, say I, and obedient wives!"

THE BROWNIE.

The Scottish Brownie formed a class of being distinct in habit and
disposition from the freakish and mischievous elves. He was meagre,
shaggy, and wild in his appearance. Thus Cleland, in his satire against
the Highlanders, compares them to

"Faunes, or Brownies, if ye will,
Or Satyres come from Atlas Hill."

In the day-time he lurked in remote recesses of the ol