The Elfin Knight
No: 2; variant: 2F
- 'DID ye ever travel twixt Berwick and Lyne?
Sober and grave grows merry in time
There ye'll meet wi a handsome young dame,
Ance she was a true love o mine.
- 'Tell her to sew me a holland sark,
And sew it all without needle-wark:
And syne we'll be true lovers again.
- 'Tell her to wash it at yon spring-well,
Where neer wind blew, nor yet rain fell.
- 'Tell her to dry it on yon hawthorn,
That neer sprang up sin Adam was born.
- 'Tell her to iron it wi a hot iron,
And plait it a' in ae plait round.'
- 'Did ye ever travel twixt Berwick and Lyne?
There ye'll meet wi a handsome young man,
Ance he was a true lover o mine.
- 'Tell him to plough me an acre o land
Betwixt the sea-side bot and the sea-sand,
And syne we'll be true lovers again.
- 'Tell him to saw it wi ae peck o corn,
And harrow it a' wi ae harrow tine.
- 'Tell him to shear it wi ae hook-tooth,
And carry it hame just into his loof.
- 'Tell him to stack it in yon mouse-hole,
And thrash it a' just wi his shoe-sole.
- 'Tell him to dry it on yon ribless kiln,
And grind it a' in yon waterless miln.
- Tell this young man, whan he's finished his wark,
He may come to me, and hese get his sark.'