“O lady, dinna look sae sad,

But tell your grief to me.”

“O wherefore should I tell my grief,

Since lax I canna find?

I’m stown frae a’ my kin and friends,

And my love I left behind.

“But had I paper, pen, and ink,

Before that it were day,

I yet might get a letter sent

In time to Johny Hay.”