ryland_

YOU may fancy, if you can, what joy there was in Fairnilee when Randal
came home. They quite forgot the hunger and the hard times, and the
old nurse laughed and cried over her bairn that had grown into a tall,
strong young man. And to Lady Ker it was all one as if her husband had
come again, as he was when first she knew him long ago; for Randal had
his face, and his eyes, and the very sound of his voice. They could
hardly believe he was not a spirit, and they clasped his hands, and hung
on his neck, and could not keep their eyes off him. This was the end of
all their sorrow, and it was as if Randal had come back from the dead;
so that no people in the world were ever so happy as they were next day,
when the sun shone down on the Tweed and the green trees that rustle in
the wind round Fairnilee. But in the evening, when the old nurse was out
of the way, Randal sat between his mother and Jean, and they each held
his hands, as if they could not let him go, for fear he should vanish
away from them again. And they would turn round anxiously if anything
stirred, for fear it should be the two white deer that sometimes were
said to come for people escaped from Fairyland, and then these people
must rise and follow them, and never return any more. But the white deer
never came for Randal.

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So he told them all his adventures, and all that had happened to him
since that midsummer night, seven long years ago.

It had been with him as it was with Jean He had gone to the Wishing
Well, and wished to see the Fairy Queen and Fairyland. And he had seen
the beautiful castle in the well, and a beautiful woman's face had
floated up to meet his on the water. Then he had gathered the white
roses, and then he heard a great sound of horses' feet, and of bells
jingling, and a lady rode up, the very lady he had seen in the well.
She had a white horse, and she was dressed in green, and she beckoned
to Randal to mount on her horse, with her before him on the pillion. And
the bells on the bridle rang, and the horse flew faster than the wind.

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So they rode and rode through the summer night, and they came to a
desert place, and living lands were left far behind. Then the Fairy
Queen showed him three paths, one steep and narrow, and beset with
briars and thorns: that was the road to goodness and happiness, but it
was little trodden or marked with the feet of people that had come and
go