Читать книгу Story-Telling Ballads. Selected and Arranged for Story-Telling and Reading Aloud and for the Boys' and Girls' Own Reading онлайн

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The mother sat by her daughter’s side;

“Sweet Meg, come tell me this,

Wouldst thou the rather be a bride,

Then live in singleness?

“Before I was your age, I trow,

I was in a bride her place.”

“Aye, mother,” quo’ Meg, and sighed full sore,

“But ye had a well-faured face.

“But you shall see the Ettrick stream

Run thro’ the dells o’ Yarrow,

Before ye hear o’ an offer to me,

Or a man to be my marrow.

“My face is foul, my heart is large,

A kinder none there is;

And must I pass away my days,

In sullen loneliness?”

The mother told her of young Scott,

And waited her reply;

“O Mother, I’d rather marry him

Than ever he should die!”

But the tears rose welling from their spring,

And filled her cushat eyes;

“But, Mother, how if when we’re wed,

He should my heart despise?”

“Oh, marriage,” quo’ the wily dame,

“Is not that hard to snoove,

If ye should marry Willie Scott,

Ye’ll be like hand and glove.”

Sir Gideon entered young Scott’s dungeon;

“Thy death is at my hand,

Ye came as a thief in the dead o’ night,