IX + 

The Fairy Fiddler + 

The father thought over many plans, but never came upon the right one. He did not know that they were the same tribe which had before carried away his wife when she was an infant. If he had, they might have done something sooner. + 

At length, one night, towards the close of seven years, about twelve o’clock, Colin suddenly opened his eyes, for he had been fast asleep and dreaming, and saw a few grotesque figures which he thought he must have seen before, dancing on the floor between him and the nearly extinguished fire. One of them had a violin, but when Colin first saw him he was not playing. Another of them was singing, and thus keeping the dance in time. This was what he sang, evidently addressed to the fiddler, who stood in the centre of the dance:⁠— + 

“Peterkin, Peterkin, tall and thin, + 

What have you done with his cheek and his chin? + 

What have you done with his ear and his eye? + 

Hearken, hearken, and hear him cry.” + 

Here Peterkin put his fiddle to his neck, and drew from it a wail just like the cry of a child, at which the dancers danced more furiously. Then he went on playing the tune the other had just sung, in accompaniment to his own reply:⁠— + 

“Silversnout, Silversnout, short and stout, + 

I have cut them off and plucked them out, + 

And salted them down in the Kelpie’s Pool, + 

Because papa Colin is such a fool.” + 

Then the fiddle cried like a child again, and they danced more wildly than ever. + 

Colin, filled with horror, although he did not more than half believe what they were saying, sat up in bed and stared at them with fierce eyes, waiting to hear what they would say next. Silversnout now resumed his part:⁠— + 

“Ho, ho! Ho! ho! and if he don’t know, + 

And fish them out of the pool, so⁠—so,”⁠— + 

here they all pretended to be hauling in a net as they danced. + 

“Before the end of the seven long years, + 

Sweet babe will be left without eyes or ears.” + 

Then Peterkin replied:⁠— + 

“Sweet babe will be left without cheek or chin, + 

Only a hole to put porridge in; + 

Porridge and milk, and haggis, and cakes: + 

Sweet babe will gobble till his stomach aches.” + 

From this last verse, Colin knew that they must be Scotch fairies, and all at once recollected their figures as belonging to the multitude he had once seen frolicking in his father’s cottage. It was now Silversnout’s turn. He began: + 

“But never more shall Colin see + 

Sweet babe again upon his knee, + 

With or without his cheek or chin, + 

Except⁠—” + 

Here Silversnout caught sight of Colin’s face staring at him from the bed, and with a shriek of laughter they all vanished, the tones of Peterkin’s fiddle trailing after them through the darkness like the train of a shooting star. + 