Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Scottish ballads

350
O eat and drink, my merry-men a',
The better shall ye fare ;
For my two sons they are come hame
To me for evermau-."
And she has gane and made their bed,
She's made it saft and fine ;
And she's happit them wi' her gay mantil,
Because they were her ain.*
But the young cock crew in the merry Linkum,
And the wild fowl chirped for day ;
And the aulder to the younger said,
" Brother, we maun away.
The cock doth craw, the day doth daw,
The channerin -|- worm doth chide ;
Gin we be missed out o' our place,
A sair pain we maun bide."
" Lie still, lie still a little wee while,
Lie still but if we may ;
Gin my mother should miss us when she wakes,
She'll gae mad ere it be day."
O it's they've taen up their mother's mantil,
And they've hung it on a pin :
" O lang may ye hing, my mother's mantil.
Ere ye hap us again."
» Variation in the Border Minstrelsy :
And she has made to them a bed ;
She's made it large and wide ;
And she's taen her mantel her about.
Sat down at the bed side.
t Fretting.