But the canty auld wife cam till her braith,
And she thocht the Bible micht ward aif scaith;
Be it benshee, bogle, ghaist, or wraith—
But it fear’d na Aiken-drum.
“His presence protect us!” quoth the auld gudeman;
“What wad ye, whare won ye,—by sea or by lan’?
I conjure ye—speak—by the Beuk in my han’!”
What a grane gae Aiken-drum!
“I lived in a lan’ whare we saw nae sky,
I dwalt in a spot whare a burn rins na by;