"When the Kye Comes Hame" 745

As quickly checked by virgin shame:
She drops a curtsey, steals a glance,
Receives a kiss, one step advance.—
If such I love, am I to blame?

I sit, and talk of twenty things,
Of South Sea stock, or death of kings,

While only "Yes" or "No," says Molly;
As cautious she conceals her thoughts,
As others do their private faults:-
Is this her prudence, or her folly?

Parting, I kiss her lip and cheek,
I hang about her snow neck,

And cry, "Farewell, my dearest Molly!"
Yet still I hang and still I kiss,

Ye learned sages, say, is this

In me the effect of love, or folly?

No-both by sober reason move,—
She prudence shows, and I true love—
No charge of folly can be laid.
Then (till the marriage-rites proclaimed
Shall join our hands) let us be named
The constant swain, the virtuous maid.

COME, all ye jolly shepherds

That whistle through the glen,

I'll tell ye of a secret

That courtiers dinna ken:

What is the greatest bliss

That the tongue o' man can name?

'Tis to woo a bonnie lassie

When the kye comes hame.

When the kye comes hame,
When the kye comes hame,
"Tween the gloamin and the mirk,
When the kye comes hame.

'Tis not beneath the coronet,
Nor canopy of state,
'Tis not on couch of velvet,
Nor arbor of the great-
'Tis beneath the spreading birk,
In the glen without the name,
Wi' a bonnie, bonnie lassie,

When the kye comes hame.

There the blackbird bigs his nest
For the mate he lo'es to see,
And on the topmost bough,
O, a happy bird is he!

Then he pours his melting ditty,
And love is a' the theme,
And he'll woo his bonnie lassie
When the kye comes hame.

When the blewart bears a pearl,
And the daisy turns a pea,
And the bonnie lucken gowan
Has fauldit up her e'e,

Then the laverock frae the blue lift

Draps down, and thinks nae shame

To woo his bonnie lassie

When the kye comes hame.

See yonder pawkie shepherd

That lingers on the hill— His ewes are in the fauld,

And his lambs are lying still; Yet he downa gang to bed,

For his heart is in a flame

To meet his bonnie lassie

When the kye comes hame.

When the little wee bit heart
Rises high in the breast,
And the little wee bit starn

Rises red in the east,

The Low-Backed Car

O there's a joy sae dear,

That the heart can hardly frame, Wi' a bonnie, bonnie lassie,

When the kye comes hame.

Then since all nature joins

In this love without alloy,
O, wha wad prove a traitor
To Nature's dearest joy?
Or wha wad choose a crown,
Wi' its perils and its fame,
And miss his bonnie lassie
When the kye comes hame?
When the kye comes hame,

When the kye comes hame

'Tween the gloamin' and the mirk,

When the kye comes hame!

747

James Hogg [1770-1835]

THE LOW-BACKED CAR

WHEN first I saw sweet Peggy, 'Twas on a market day,

A low-backed car she drove, and sat

Upon a truss of hay;

But when that hay was blooming grass

And decked with flowers of Spring,
No flower was there that could compare
With the blooming girl I sing.
As she sat in the low-backed car,
The man at the turnpike bar

Never asked for the toll,

But just rubbed his ould poll, And looked after the low-backed car.

In battle's wild commotion,

The proud and mighty Mars,

With hostile scythes, demands his tithes

Of death-in warlike cars;

While Peggy, peaceful goddess,
Has darts in her bright eye,

That knock men down in the market town,
As right and left they fly;—
While she sits in her low-backed car,
Than battle more dangerous far,—
For the doctor's art

Cannot cure the heart

That is hit from that low-backed car.

Sweet Peggy round her car, sir,
Has strings of ducks and geese,
But the scores of hearts she slaughters
By far outnumber these;

While she among her poultry sits,

Just like a turtle-dove,

Well worth the cage, I do engage,

Of the blooming god of Love! While she sits in her low-backed car, The lovers come near and far,

And envy the chicken

That Peggy is pickin',

As she sits in her low-backed car.

O, I'd rather own that car, sir,
With Peggy by my side,

Than a coach-and-four, and goold galore,

And a lady for my bride;

For the lady would sit forninst me,

On a cushion made with taste, While Peggy would sit beside me, With my arm around her waist,While we drove in the low-backed car, To be married by Father Mahar,

O, my heart would beat high

At her glance and her sigh,

Though it beat in a low-backed car!

Samuel Lover [1797-1868]

The Pretty Girl of Loch Dan 749

THE PRETTY GIRL OF LOCH DAN

THE shades of eve had crossed the glen
That frowns o'er infant Avonmore,
When, nigh Loch Dan, two weary men,
We stopped before a cottage door.

"God save all here!" my comrade cries,
And rattles on the raised latch-pin;
"God save you kindly!" quick replies
A clear sweet voice, and asks us in.

We enter; from the wheel she starts,
A rosy girl with soft black eyes;
Her fluttering curtsey takes our hearts,
Her blushing grace and pleased surprise.

Poor Mary, she was quite alone,

For, all the way to Glenmalure,

Her mother had that morning gone,
And left the house in charge with her.

But neither household cares, nor yet
The shame that startled virgins feel,
Could make the generous girl forget
Her wonted hospitable zeal.

She brought us, in a beechen bowl,

Sweet milk that smacked of mountain thyme,

Oat cake, and such a yellow roll

Of butter, it gilds all my rhyme!

And, while we ate the grateful food
(With weary limbs on bench reclined),
Considerate and discreet, she stood
Apart, and listened to the wind.

Kind wishes both our souls engaged,

From breast to breast spontaneous ran

The mutual thought, we stood and pledged
THE MODEST ROSE ABOVE LOCH DAN.