The Rantin Laddie
No: 240; variant: 240A
- 'AFTEN hae I playd at the cards and the dice,
For the love of a bonie rantin laddie,
But now I maun sit in my father's kitchen-neuk
And balow a bastard babie.
- 'For my father he will not me own,
And my mother she neglects me,
And a' my friends hae lightlyed me,
And their servants they do slight me.
- 'But had I a servant at my command,
As aft times I've had many,
That wad rin wi a letter to bonie Glenswood,
Wi a letter to my rantin laddie!'
- 'O is he either a laird or a lord,
Or is he but a cadie,
That ye do him ca sae aften by name
Your bonie, bonie rantin laddie?'
- 'Indeed he is baith a laird and a lord,
And he never was a cadie,
But he is the Earl o bonie Aboyne,
And he is my rantin laddie.'
- 'O ye'se get a servant at your command,
As aft times ye've had many,
That sall rin wi a letter to bonie Glenswood,
A letter to your rantin laddie.'
- When Lord Aboyne did the letter get,
O but he blinket bonie!
But or he had read three lines of it
I think his heart was sorry.
- 'O wha is [this] daur be sae bauld
Sae cruelly to use my lassie?
. . . .
. . .
- 'For her father he will not her know,
And her mother she does slight her,
And a' her friends hae lightlied her,
And their servants they neglect her.
- 'Go raise to me my five hundred men,
Make haste and make them ready,
With a milk-white steed under every ane,
For to bring hame my lady.'
- As they cam in thro Buchanshire,
They were a company bonie,
With a gude claymor in every hand,
And O but they shin'd bonie!