CXXXVI.
THE CARLE OF KELLYBURN BRAES.
Tune—“Kellyburn Braes.”
[Of this song Mrs. Burns said to Cromek, when running her finger over the long list of lyrics which her husband had written or amended for the Museum, “Robert gae this one a terrible brushing.” A considerable portion of the old still remains.]
I.
There lived a carle on Kellyburn braes,
(Hey, and the rue grows bonnie wi’ thyme),
And he had a wife was the plague o’ his days;
And the thyme it is wither’d, and rue is in prime.
II.
Ae day as the carle gaed up the lang glen,
(Hey, and the rue grows bonnie wi’ thyme),
He met wi’ the devil; says, “How do yow fen?”
And the thyme it is wither’d, and rue is in prime.
III.
“I’ve got a bad wife, sir; that’s a’ my complaint;
(Hey, and the rue grows bonnie wi’ thyme),
For, saving your presence, to her ye’re a saint;
And the thyme it is wither’d, and rue is in prime.”