"O stay! O stay!" says the thief,
"And thou half my share shalt have:" 50
"Nay, marry, not I," quoth the old man,
"For once I've bitten a knave!"
This thief he was not content;
He thought these must be bags;
So he up with his rusty sword, 55
And chopped the old saddle to rags.
The old man gallop'd and rode
Until he was almost spent,
Till he came to his landlord's house,
And paid him his whole year's rent. 60
He opened this rogue's portmantle;
It was glorious for to behold;
There was five hundred pound in money,
And other five hundred in gold.
His landlord it made him to stare, 65
When he did the sight behold;
"Where did thou get the white money,
And where get the yellow gold?"
"I met a fond fool by the way,
I swapped horses, and gave him no boot; 70
But never mind," says the old man,
"I got a fond fool by the foot."
"But now you're grown cramped and old,
Nor fit for to travel about;"
"O never mind," says the old man, 75
"I can give these old bones a root!"
As he was a-riding hame,
And a-down a narrow lane,
He spied his mare tied to a tree,
And said, "Tib, thou'lt now gae hame." 80
And when that he got hame,
And told his old wife what he'd done,
She rose and she donned her clothes,
And about the house did run.
She sung, and she danced, and sung, 85
And she sung with a merry devotion,
"If ever our daughter gets wed,
It will help to enlarge her portion!"