2. They hadna been
a week from her,
A
week but barely ane,
When
word came to the carlin[118] wife
That
her three sons were gane.
3. They hadna been
a week from her,
A
week but barely three,
When
word came to the carlin wife
That
her sons she’d never see.
4. “I wish
the wind may never cease,
Nor
fashes[119] in the flood,
Till
my three sons come hame to me,
In
earthly flesh and blood.”
5. It fell about
the Martinmass[120],
When
nights are lang and mirk,
The
carlin wife’s three sons came hame,
And
their hats were o’ the birk[121].
6. It neither grew
in syke[122] nor ditch,
Nor
yet in ony sheugh[123],
But
at the gates o’ Paradise,
That
birk grew fair eneugh.
* * * * *
7. “Blow
up the fire, my maidens!
Bring
water from the well!
For
a’ my house shall feast this night,
Since
my three sons are well.”
8. And she has
made to them a bed,
She’s
made it large and wide,
And
she’s ta’en her mantle her about,
Sat
down at the bed-side.
* * * * *
9. Up then crew the red,
red cock[124],
And up and crew the gray;
The eldest to the youngest said,
“’Tis time we were away.”
10. The cock he hadna craw’d
but once,
And clapp’d his wing at a’,
When the youngest to the eldest said,
“Brother, we must awa’.”
11. “The cock doth
craw, the day doth daw.
The channerin[125] worm doth chide;
Gin we be mist out o’ our place,
A sair pain we maun bide.”
12. “Fare ye weel,
my mother dear!
Fareweel to barn and byre!
And fare ye weel, the bonny lass
That kindles my mother’s fire!”
[Footnote 118: Old woman.]
[Footnote 119: Lockhart’s
clever emendation for the fishes
of the Ms. Fashes = disturbances, storms.]
[Footnote 120: November 11th.
Another version gives the time
as “the hallow days of Yule.”]
[Footnote 121: Birch.]
[Footnote 122: Marsh.]
[Footnote 123: Furrow, ditch.]
[Footnote 124: In folk-lore, the break of day is announced to demons and ghosts by three cocks,—usually a white, a red, and a black; but the colors, and even the numbers, vary. At the third crow, the ghosts must vanish. This applies to guilty and innocent alike; of course, the sons are “spirits of health.”]
[Footnote 125: Fretting.]
SWEET WILLIAM’S GHOST
1. Whan bells war
rung, an mass was sung,
A
wat[126] a’ man to bed were gone,
Clark
Sanders came to Margret’s window,
With
mony a sad sigh and groan.