A young man is deserting one maid for another. The object of his new fancy lives at a distance, and he is on his way to her. He is followed by his old love from stage to stage; he repelling her, and she tenderly remonstrating. His heart gradually softens; he buys her gifts from town to town, and though each time he bids her go back, he ends with buying her a wedding gown (ring) and marrying her.
Two pretty stanzas in A, 4, 5, seem not to belong to this story. The inconstant youth would have been only too glad to have the faithful maid look to other men, and gives her all liberty to do so. These two stanzas are first found in Herd’s MSS, I, 53, and in Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, 1776, II, 6, as follows:
False luve, and hae ye played me this,
In the simmer, mid the flowers?
I sall repay ye back agen,
In the winter, mid the showers.
Bot again, dear luve, and again, dear luve,
Will ye not turn again?
As ye look to ither women,
Sall I to ither men.