C
Jamieson, Popular Ballads, II, 158, as often heard by him in Morayshire.
1
There cam a trooper frae the west,
And he’s ridden till his deary;
‘It’s open and lat me in,’ he says,
For I am wet and weary.’
* * * * * *
2
‘O whan sall we be married, love?
O whan sall we be married?’
‘Whan heather-cows turn owsen-bows,
It’s then that we’ll be married.’
3
‘O whan sall we be married, love?
O when sall we be married?’
‘When cockle-shells turn siller bells,
It’s then that we’ll be married.’
4
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
‘Whan the sun and moon dance on the green,
It’s then that we’ll be married.’
A.
56. Lewas.
58. lea you now.
B.
43. threw? Motherwell.
47. gard.
C.
The verses are given incidentally in a preface to another ballad. Between 1 and 2: The kind fair one puts his horse into the stable and takes himself to her bower, where she gives him ‘the good white bread and blood-red wine,’ and a part of her bed. In the morning, when he proposes to depart, she naturally enough asks [as in st. 2].