Page:Ballads, Stevenson, 1890.djvu/81

 "Far have I been and much have I seen,

And kent both gain and loss,

But here we have woods on every hand

And a kittle water to cross.

Far have I been and much have I seen,

But never the beat of this;

And there 's one must go down to that waterside

To see how deep it is."

It fell in the dusk of the night

When unco things betide,

The skilly captain, the Cameron,

Went down to that waterside.

Canny and soft the captain went;

And a man of the woody land,

With the shaven head and the painted face,

Went down at his right hand.

It fell in the quiet night,

There was never a sound to ken;

But all of the woods to the right and the left

Lay filled with the painted men.

"Far have I been and much have I seen,

Both as a man and boy,

But never have I set forth a foot

On so perilous an employ."

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