Charlie handed him another cup of strong drink, desiring him to take it off and sing. He did the first freely, and attempted the second with equal alacrity; but his voice and memory both failed him by the way, to the great amusement of the whole party,—even the captive boy screamed with laughter, and the great Master was twice constrained to smile. But we must describe this scene as Isaac himself gives it.
The poet was sitting on a bench, with Charlie on the one hand, and Delany on the other; and, fixing his eyes on the ceiling, and clasping his hands, which he heaved up at every turn of the tune, he went on thus:
THE SWEETEST THING THE BEST THING.
A SONG.
VERSE FIRST.
Come tell me a' you shepherds
That love the tarry woo',
And tell me a' you jolly boys
That whistle at the plow,
What is the greatest bliss
That the tongue of man can name,
'Tis "To woo a bonny lassie
When the kye come hame."
When the kye come hame,
When the kye come hame,
'Tween the gloaming and the mirk,
When the kye come hame.
That's the burden, or the quoir, as father Cormack calls it;—the o'erword, like.
VERSE SECOND.
'Tis not beneath the burgonet,
Nor yet beneath the crown,
'Tis not on couch of velvet,
Nor yet in bed of down;
'Tis beneath the spreading birch
In the dell without the name,
Wi' a bonny bonny lassie,
When the kye come hame.
When the kye come hame, &c.