"When the Kye Comes Hame" 745 As quickly checked by virgin shame: I sit, and talk of twenty things, While only "Yes" or "No," says Molly; Parting, I kiss her lip and cheek, And cry, "Farewell, my dearest Molly!" Ye learned sages, say, is this In me the effect of love, or folly? No-both by sober reason move,— 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, 'Tis not beneath the coronet, When the kye comes hame. There the blackbird bigs his nest Then he pours his melting ditty, When the blewart bears a pearl, 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 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, 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, 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, That knock men down in the market town, Cannot cure the heart That is hit from that low-backed car. Sweet Peggy round her car, sir, 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, 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 "God save all here!" my comrade cries, We enter; from the wheel she starts, Poor Mary, she was quite alone, For, all the way to Glenmalure, Her mother had that morning gone, But neither household cares, nor yet 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 Kind wishes both our souls engaged, From breast to breast spontaneous ran The mutual thought, we stood and pledged |