To come and fetch Johnie away?
'Is there a bird in this hale forest
Would do as mickle for me,
As dip its wing in the wan water,
And straik it ower my ee-bree?'
The starling flew to his mother's bower-stane,
It whistled and it sang;
And aye the owerword o' its tune
Was, 'Johnie tarries lang.'
The mother says in conclusion: