"I fand I was come again into the country o' the fairies an' the spirits," said Walter; "an' there was nae denying o't; for when I saw the bit crookit moon come stealing o'er the kipps o' Bowerhope-Law, an' thraw her dead yellow light on the hills o' Meggat, I fand the very nature an' the heart within me changed. A' the hills on the tae side o' the loch war as dark as pitch, an' the tither side had that ill-hued colour on't, as if they had been a' rowed in their windling sheets; an' then the shadow o' the moon it gaed bobbing an' quivering up the loch fornent me, like a streek o' cauld fire. In spite o' my teeth I turned eiry, an' the mair I feucht against it I grew the eiryer, for whenever the spirits come near ane, that kind o' feeling comes on.
"Weel, just as I was gaun round the end o' the Wedder-Law, a wee bit aboon the head o' the Braken Wood, I sees a white thing on the road afore me. At the first it appeared to be gaun away, but at length I saw it coming nearer an' nearer me, keeping aye a little aboon the road till I came amaist close to it, an' then it stood stane-still an' glowred at me. What in the wide world can it be that is here at sic an untimely time o' night as this? thinks I to mysel. However, I steps aye on, an' wasna gaun to mak nor meddle wi't ava, till at last, just as I was gaun by, it says in a soft low voice,--"Wow, friend, but ye gang late the night!"
"Faith, no muckle later than yoursel," quo' I, "gin it be your will."
"O'er late on sic a night!" quoth the creature again; "o'er late on Hallow E'en, an' that ye will find."
"It elyed away o'er the brow, an' I saw nae mair o't. "Lord sauf us! quo' I to mysel, is this Hallow-E'en? I wish I war safe at hame, or in amang Christian creatures o' ony kind!--Or had I but my fine dog Reaver wi' me, to let me ken when the fairies are coming near me--Goodness to the day! I may be amang the mids o' them ere ever I ken what I'm doing." A' the stories that ever I heard about fairies in my life came linkin into my mind ane after anither, and I almaist thought I was already on my road to the Fairy-land, an' to be paid away to hell, like a kane-cock, at the end o' seven years. I likit the boding o' the apparition I had met wi' unco ill, but yet I had some hopes that I was o'er muckle, an' o'er heavy metal for the fairies. Hout, thinks I, what need I be sae feared? They'll never take away ane o' my size to be a fairy--Od, I wad be the daftest-like fairy ever was seen.