The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Scenes of Long Ago. 479
it had come from a lantern which someone entering the
byre carried. A iow minutes afterwards, the two travellers
heard the sweet cadences of a croon such as dairymaids
sing when milking in the fold, and which may be rendered
as follows :
—
When evening gathered o'er the glen,
I welcomed home my kine ;
No wife could boast a fairer pen,
No cog so full as mine.
Scarcely had the songstress commenced her strain, when
Teviot observed that his companion seemed to start, and,
while he listened intently, recognition and doubt chased
each other over his face for a few moments. At length it
was fairly overspread with a smile of joyful surprise as he
whispered,
Hark !
" Am I dreaming? and yet surely not. It must be she.
she is beginning another verse."
That night I heard the raven croak
From out an alder tree ;
Ere break of day a woful stroke
Fell on my fold and me.
" As sure as God made the blessed sun," said Gillespie,
as he bent close to his master's ear, " that voice is the voice
of young Bessie M'Indrui of Balmoses, and she wishes to
attract our attention for some reason. No lassie in all
Duncairn can sing so well. I knew she had not returned
from the south with the others after the harvest was over.
But what is this that she is singing now, and in a much
lower tone ?"
When morning glimmered o'er the ben.
And music filled the wood ;
I wept beside an empty pen.
And bothie red with blood.
" My dear master,"' said Gillespie, " there is some danger
near, which that true-hearted girl wishes to put us on our
guard against. Secure the door, and let no one come here
until I return."