wo men, on a very dark night, approaching the banks of the Ettrick, heard a
doleful voice from its waves repeatedly exclaim, "Lost! Lost!" They followed
the sound, which seemed to be the voice of a drowning person, and, to their
infinite astonishmeent, they found that it ascended the river. Still they
continued, during a long and tempestuous night, to follow the cry of the
malicious sprite; and arriving, before morning's dawn, at the very sources of
the river, the voice was now heard descending the opposite side of the
mountain in which they arise. The fatigued and deluded travellers now
relinquished the pursuit, and had no sooner done so than they heard Shellycoat
applauding, in loud bursts of laughter, his successful roguery.
