"I know the tale well, and dad has often said he would do his best to take me some day to see the magic lady; but he is old, and would be over-much wearied by the journey, besides that we should scarce know ourselves how to accomplish it. It would indeed be delightful, an I might next year go with you! Or even, if we could not go by night to see the fairy maiden, it would be joy enough to see the old farmhouse and the wonderful lakes, and to climb the Peak and look upon the world from the top of the mountain!" "You shall see it all, child," said Lady Rosamond; "and we will certainly see the supernatural as well as the beauties of nature! Should it fail us, I will e'en write forthwith a treatise in contradiction of the legend, and all other tales of equally lying folly! Tell me the tale then. I forgot that you were e'en such a student that for book-lore I must blush for very shame in your presence!" Whereupon Primrose related the story, which ran as follows:-- "In days of yore there dwelt in the valley beneath the shadow of the lofty Craig Aran the widow of a peasant and her only son, whose only riches were their flocks and herds, over which the youth watched tenderly from day to day on the lonely mountain-side. For the sake of his own fair countenance, as well as for the sake of a share in those goodly herds, the young man's hand was greatly craved in marriage by many a loving mother in the country-side for her fair daughters, but on none of these comely maidens did he look with favour, being ever occupied with daydreams of an ideal maiden, so wondrous fair that none yet seen might bear compare with her.