the Scotch
remishs (a form of the English romage), would perhaps come nearest
to a designation of them, consisting as they did of confused noises,
rumblings, ejaculations; and the fact itself was a reason for
silence, seeing a word might bring the place again into men's mouths
in like fashion, and seriously affect the service of the farm; such
a rumour would certainly be made in the market a ground for
demanding more wages to fee to the Mains. "Ye haud yer tongue,
laddie," she went on; "it's the least ye can efter a' 'at's come an'
gane; an' least said's sunest mendit, Gang to yer wark."

But either Mistress Jean's influx of caution came too late, and
someone had overheard her suggestion, or the idea was already abroad
in the mind bucolic and georgic, for that very night it began to be
reported upon the nearer farms, that the Mains of Glashruach was
haunted by a brownie who did all the work for both men and maids--a
circumstance productive of different opinions with regard to the
desirableness of a situation there, some asserting they would not
fee to it for any amount of wages, and others averring they could
desire nothing better than a place where the work was all done for
them.

Quick at disappearing as Gibbie was, a very little cunning on the
part of Jean might soon have entrapped the brownie; but a
considerable touch of fear was now added to her other motives for
continuing to spend a couple of hours longer in bed than had
formerly been her custom. So that for yet a few days things went on
much as usual; Gibbie saw no sign that his presence was suspected,
or that his doings were offensive; and life being to him a constant
present, he never troubled himself about anything before it was
there to answer for itself.

One morning the long thick mane of Snowball was found carefully
plaited up in innumerable locks. This was properly elf-work, but no
fairies had been heard of on Daurside for many a long year. The
brownie, on the other hand, was already in every one's mouth--only a
stray one, probably, that had wandered from some old valley away in
the mountains, where they were still believed in--but not the less a
brownie; and if it was not the brownie who plaited Snowball's mane,
who or what was it? A phenomenon must be accounted for, and he who
will not accept a theory offered, or even a word applied, is
indebted in a full explanation. The rumour spread in long slow
ripples, till at last one of them struck t