"Could flee away to my mother's bower,
"And tell to fetch Johnie away?"
The starling flew to his mother's window stane,
It whistled and it sang;
And aye the ower word o' the tune
Was—"Johnie tarries lang!"
They made a rod o the hazel bush,
Another o' the slae-thorn tree,
And mony mony were the men
At fetching our Johnie.