Mr. John Buchan a few years ago made a collection of Scottish poetry called _The Northern Muse_. In it, you may read a number of famous ballads. There are also many delightful old songs which tell of the lives of ordinary folk, or people, in their everyday work. Turn specially to number sixty-six, which is the famous, beautiful old song of a woman, a good wife, who is getting ready for the homecoming of her husband; it is called "There's nae Luck about the House". Number sixty-eight is a song of fishing people. These are not exactly ballads, but they are written, as we say, almost in the same mood as a ballad. An amusing song about a clever small boy is number one hundred and eighty; it is a ballad, and is called "The False Knight Upon the Road". In days long ago people believed in witches and wizards. The false knight is supposed to be a wizard. If the small boy had not been quick enough to give him an answer to every question, the wizard, people thought then, might carry him away. Now listen to the small boy. "O whare are ye gaun?" Quo' the fause knicht upon the road: "I'm gaun to the scule," Quo' the wee boy, and still he stude. "What is that upon your back?" Quo' the fause knicht upon the road: {117} "Atweel it is my bukes," Quo' the wee boy, and still he stude. And so on to the end of the story. Scule, of course, is school, and bukes are books. Stude is stood. {118} CHAPTER XVIII THE LADY OF THE LAKE--MARMION--JOHN GILPIN--EDINBURGH AFTER FLODDEN--HORATIUS--THE ARMADA In times of war, as you know, people sometimes have to go into hiding. Long ago, a nobleman, Earl Douglas, who lived during the reign of King James V of Scotland, had offended the King, or rather some words he was falsely reported to have uttered had been told the King, and he was in danger of imprisonment. Earl Douglas took refuge in the Highlands of Scotland with his kinsman, Sir Roderick Dhu, the head or chief of the clan Alpine, who was unwilling to acknowledge that he owed allegiance to anyone. Ellen Douglas, a very beautiful young woman, shared her father's exile. As it happened, King James went on a hunting expedition as a knight, not a king, in the same part of his kingdom. There he met Ellen, who had never seen the King and did not know who he was. The King called himself James Fitz-James. Roderick Dhu, who is in love with Ellen, plans a rising of his clan. Fitz-James is brave. He is in peril, but he wishes to extricate himself without calling on his soldiers. The story is told by Sir Walter Scott in a poem called _The Lady of the Lake_. You will find this romance in verse easy to read and very interesting. {119}