SCENE II

A late spring evening two years later. The Inn at Mauchline. The room is lamplit.

A number of villagers are seated round the room, drinking, being served by the landlord, and Nell, now the maid of the Inn. Burns is standing on a chair, singing, all joining in every other verse.

Burns:

There was three kings into the east,

Three kings both great and high;

And they hae sworn a solemn oath

John Barleycorn should die.

Chorus: