Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net WILSON'S TALES OF THE BORDERS AND OF SCOTLAND. HISTORICAL, TRADITIONARY, & IMAGINATIVE. WITH A GLOSSARY. REVISED BY ALEXANDER LEIGHTON ONE OF THE ORIGINAL EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS. VOL. X. LONDON: WALTER SCOTT, 14 PATERNOSTER SQUARE AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. 1885. CONTENTS. THE FIRST-FOOT, _(JOHN MACKAY WILSON)_ THE ROMANCE OF THE SIEGE OF PERTH, _(ALEXANDER LEIGHTON)_ THE PROFESSOR'S TALES, _(PROFESSOR THOMAS GILLESPIE)_ PEAT-CASTING TIME THE MEDAL THE MEETING AT ST BOSWELL'S, _(OLIVER RICHARDSON)_ THE STORY OF MAY DARLING, _(JOHN FRANCIS SMITH)_ I CANNA BE FASHED; OR, WILLIE GRANT'S CONFESSIONS, _(JOHN MACKAY WILSON)_ TALES OF THE EAST NEUK OF FIFE, _(MATTHEW FORSTER CONOLLY)_ THE CASTLE OF CRAIL; OR, KING DAVID AND MAUDE THE LEGEND OF THE CHURCH OF ABERCROMBIE THE ROMANCE OF THE MAY CALEB CRABBIN, _(ALEXANDER LEIGHTON)_ THE SERJEANT'S TALES, _(JOHN HOWELL)_ THE IMPRUDENT MARRIAGE THE BEWILDERED STUDENT, _(JOHN BETHUNE)_ THE CROOKED COMYN, _(ALEXANDER LEIGHTON)_ WILSON'S TALES OF THE BORDERS, AND OF SCOTLAND. THE FIRST-FOOT. Notwithstanding the shortness of their days, the bitterness of their frosts, and the fury of their storms, December and January are merry months. First comes old Christmas, shaking his hoary locks, belike, in the shape of snow-drift, and laughing, well-pleased, beneath his crown of mistletoe, over the smoking sirloin and the savoury goose. There is not a child on the south side of the Borders who longs not for the coming of merry Christmas: it is their holiday of holidays, their season of play and of presents; and old and young shake hands with Christmas, and with each other. And even on the northern side of "the river," and "the ideal line by fancy drawn," which "divide the sister kingdoms," there are thousands who welcome and forget not "blithe Yule Day." Next comes the New Year--the bottle, the hot pint, and the _first-foot_--and we might notice, also, Hansel Monday, and "Auld Hansel Monanday," which follow in their wake, and keep up the merriment till the back of January is broken. But our business at present is with the _first-foot_, and we must hold. It matters not on what side of the Borders it may be--and northward the feeling extends far beyond the Borders--there is a mysterious, an ominous importance attached to the individual who first crosses the threshold, after the clock has struck twelve at midnight, on the 31st of December, or who is the _first-foot_ in a house after the New Year has begun. The _first-foot_ stamps the "luck" of the house--the good fortune or the evil fortune of its inmates throughout the year! But to begin with our story.