Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Scottish ballads

198
To go into chamber with any ladye
That wears so rich attire.
It were more meet for a little foot-page,
That has run through moss and mire,
To take his supper upon his knee,
And sit doun by the kitchen fire."
When bells were rung, and mass was sung,
And a' men boune to meat,
Burd Helen was, at the bye-table,
Amang the pages set.
" O eat and drink, my bonnie boy,
The white breid and the beer."
" The never a bit can I eat or drink ;
My heart's sae fu' o' fear."
" O eat and drink, my bonnie boy,
The white breid and the wine."
" O the never a bit can I eat or drink ;
My heart's sae fu' o' pyne."
But out and spak Lord John his mother,'
And a skeely* woman was she : %
" Where met ye, my son, wi' that bonnie boy,
That looks sae sad on thee ?
Sometimes his cheek is rosy red,
And sometimes deidly wan :
He's liker a woman grit wi' child,
Than a young lord's serving man."
" O it maks me laugh, my mother dear,
Sic words to hear frae thee.
♦ Skilful— or rather expressing that property in old women which
makes them far-seen in matters connected with the physics of human na-
ture.