I'll tell ye of a secret
That courtiers dinna ken.
What is the greatest bliss
That the tongue o' man can name?—
'Tis to woo a bonnie lassie
When the kye come hame.'
'Great heavens!' said Mr. Hodson to himself, 'such a voice—and all Europe waiting for a new tenor! But at seven or eight and twenty I suppose he is beyond training.'
The refrain became more and more distant:
'When the kye come hame,
When the kye come hame,