Page:The Book of Scottish Song.djvu/25

Rh O, never fling the warmsome boon

O' bairnhood's love awa';

Mind how ye sleepit cheek to cheek,

Atween me and the wa',

How ae kind arm was owre ye baith—

But, if ye disagree,

Think on the kindly sowth'rin' soun',

O, gree, bairnies, gree.

[ song, so favourably known to the public through the singing of Mr. Templeton and other eminent vocalists, is the production of. It first appeared, about fifteen years ago, in a collection of pieces by him, entitled, "May Flowers. Poems and Songs, some in the Scottish Dialect." The music is by Joseph de Pinna.]

[ author of this song is, a native of Ayr. It originally appeared in the Ayr and Wigtonshire Courier, and was afterwards introduced into one of a series of stories by Mr. Crawford, published at Edinburgh, in 1825, under the title of "Tales of my Grandmother." The composer was R. A. Smith.]

[ printed in Herd's Collection, 1769. The words have been set to different airs, but the original is to be found in Gow's fifth collection of Reels.]

of mine came here yestreen,

And he would ha'e me down

To drink a bottle of ale wi' him

In the neist burrows town.

But, O! indeed it was. Sir,

Sae far the waur for me;

For lang or e'er that I came hame

My wife had ta'en the gee.

We sat sae late, and drank sae stout,

The truth I'll tell to you,

That ere the middle o' the night,

We were a' roaring fou.

My wife sits at the fire-side,

And the tear blinds aye her e'e,

The ne'er a bed will she gae to,

But sit and tak' the gee.