20.

20.1, 21.1: The MS. gives ‘boy’ for ‘bird.’

‘Is there never a bird in a’ this wood

That will tell what I can say;

That will go to Cockley’s Well,

Tell my mither to fetch me away?’

21.

There was a bird into that wood,

That carried the tidings away,

And many ae was the well-wight man