"The heavens were black, the night was dark, And dreary was the place; But Janet stood, with eager wish Her lover to embrace. "Betwixt the hours of twelve and one, A north wind tore the bent; And straight she heard strange elritch sounds, Upon that wind which went. "About the dead hour o' the night, She heard the bridles ring; And Janet was as glad o' that As ony earthly thing. "Their oaten pipes blew wondrous shrill, The hemlock small blew clear; And louder notes from hemlock large, And bog-reed, struck the ear. "Fair Janet stood, with mind unmoved, The dreary heath upon; And louder, louder wax'd the sound, As they came riding on. "Will o' the Wisp before them went, Sent forth a twinkling light; And soon she saw the Fairy bands All riding in her sight. "And first gaed by the black, black steed. And then gaed by the brown; But fast she grip't the milk-white steed, And pu'd the rider down. "She pu'd him frae the milk white steed, And loot the bridle fa'; And up there raise an erlish cry-- 'He's won among us a'!' "They shaped him in fair Janet's arms, An esk, but and an adder; She held him fast in every shape-- To be her bairn's father. "Th ey shaped him in her arms at last A mother-naked man: She wrapt him in her green mantle, And sae her true love wan!" A mile or two up the river from Carterhaugh, on Ettrick's right bank, stands the interesting and well-preserved old tower of Oakwood, the property of the Scotts of Harden, in whose possession it has been since 1517. Locally, the belief is implicitly held that this tower was, in the thirteenth century, the residence of the great Michael Scott, the Wizard, out of whose tomb in Melrose Abbey William of Deloraine took "From the cold hand the Mighty Book, With iron clasp'd, and with iron hound: He thought as he took it the dead man frowned." There _was_ a Michael Scott who once owned Oakwood, but that was long after the Wizard's day. In spite of all tradition--for whose birth Sir Walter is probably responsible--it is not {277}likely that the veritable Michael (Thomas the Rhymer's contemporary, and a Fifeshire man) ever was near Oakwood. [Illustration: 0297]