They thought that she was fast asleep,
But she was dead with sorrow.
They have kept her ever since
Deep within the lakes,
On a bed of flag-leaves,
Watching till she wakes.

By the craggy hillside,
Through the mosses bare,
They have planted thorn-trees
For pleasure here and there.
Is any man so daring

As dig them up in spite,

He shall find their sharpest thorns
In his bed at night.

Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We dare n't go a-hunting
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,

And white owl's feather!

William Allingham.

AULD ROBIN GRAY

35

AULD ROBIN GRAY 1

WHEN the sheep are in the fauld, and the kye at hame,

And a' the warld to rest are gane,

The waes o' my heart fa' in showers frae my e'e, While my gudeman lies sound by me.

Young Jamie lo'ed me weel, and sought me for his bride;

But saving a croun he had naething else beside :
To make the croun a pund, young Jamie gaed to

sea;

And the croun and the pund were baith for me.

He hadna been awa' a week but only twa, When my father brak his arm, and the cow was stown awa';

My mother she fell sick, and my Jamie at the

sea

And auld Robin Gray came a-courtin' me.

My father couldna work, and my mother couldna

spin ;

I toiled day and night, but their bread I couldna

win;

Auld Rob maintained them baith, and wi' tears in

his e'e

Said, "Jennie, for their sakes, oh, marry me!"

1 Note 3.

My heart it said nay; I looked for Jamie back; But the wind it blew high, and the ship it was a

wrack,

His ship it was a wrack why didna Jamie dee, Or why do I live to cry, Wae 's me?

My father urgit sair: my mother didna speak;
But she looked in my face till my heart was like to

break :

They gi'ed him my hand, but my heart was at the

sea:

Sae auld Robin Gray he was gudeman to me.

I hadna been a wife a week but only four,
When mournfu' as I sat on the stane at the door,
I saw my Jamie's wraith, for I couldna think it
he

Till he said, "I'm come hame to marry thee."

Oh, sair, sair did we greet, and muckle did we

say;

We took but ae kiss, and I bad him gang away : I wish that I were dead, but I'm no like to dee; And why was I born to say, Wae's me!

I

gang like a ghaist, and I carena to spin;

I daurna think on Jamie, for that waud be a sin;
But I'll do my best a gude wife aye to be,

For auld Robin Gray he is kind unto me.
Lady Anne Lindsay.

JEAN-TO A WATERFOWL

37

JEAN

Or a' the airts the wind can blaw,
I dearly like the west,

For there the bonnie lassie lives,
The lassie I lo'e best:

There wild woods grow and rivers row,
And monie a hill between ;

But day and night my fancy's flight
Is ever wi' my Jean.

I see her in the dewy flowers,
I see her sweet and fair;
I hear her in the tunefu' birds,

I hear her charm the air:

There's not a bonnie flower that springs
By fountain, shaw, or green;
There's not a bonnie bird that sings,

But minds me o' my Jean.

Robert Burns.

TO A WATERFOWL

WHITHER, 'midst falling dew,

While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way?

Vainly the fowler's eye

Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
As, darkly painted on the crimson sky,

Thy figure floats along.

Seek'st thou the plashy brink

Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,
Or where the rocking billows rise and sink
On the chafed ocean side?

There is a Power whose care

Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,

The desert and illimitable air,

Lone wandering, but not lost.

All day thy wings have fanned,

At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere;
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,
Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end;

Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend Soon o'er thy sheltered nest.

Thou 'rt gone,

the abyss of heaven

Hath swallowed up thy form, yet on my heart

Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,
And shall not soon depart.

He who from zone to zone

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone

Will lead my steps aright.

William Cullen Bryant.