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When time brought me back to my father’s again,

To our auld cot that stood by the glen side alane:

Wi’ a changed heart I passed by the burn an’ the shaw

Whaur I sported the blythe hours o’ boyhood awa’.

I stepp’d in at the door, and I look’d a’ aroun’,

But I saw na a face an’ I heard na a soun’;

At length frae the room my auld faither crept nigh,

But he kenn'd na the face o’ his ain sailor boy.

I took the wee creepy the first thing I gat,

Syne doon by the ance cheery ingle I sat—

Quo’ I, this shall be my hame for ae nicht I ween,

It is lang since I sat by a peat hearth at e’en.

My faither said, freely yese share o’ my hame,

Wha kens, my ain boy may be seekin’ the same;

He has long been awa’ at the wearisome sea,

And a sailor’s like ane o’ my ain house to me.

Three sisters, a’ young things when I gaed awa’,

Were noo grown to women, an’ married were twa’;

The third wi’ my faither, gay, blythsome and free,

Cam’ in unco weel pleased a sailor to sec.

I had a gude store o’ the rich gowden coin,

For fortune in thae days upon me did shine—

Wi’ a feck o’t, I said, tak’ this present frae me,

And thank your ain boy for’t, sae lang at the sea.

They looked upon ither, while fast the tears fell;

They spak’ na a word, and I maist grat mysel’,

But silent they look’d, gaid an’ cam’ back again,

Amaist fear'd to ask me if I was their ain.

We sat maist a’ night an’ the peats gat a heize;

I thought the auld cot wad hae burn’d wi’ the bleeze.

My sister, wi’ merry heart, tauld me maist a’

That was strange frae the vera day I gaed awa’.

My faither seem’d shakin’ aff some o’ his years,

As be ran o’er his combats, his hopes, and his fears;

An’ in pride o’ auld age cam’ the look and the smile,

That tauld hoo his heart was uplifted the while.