O, WHAR DID YE GET.

Tune-" Bonnie Dundee."

I.

O, WHAR did ye get that hauver meal bannock?
O silly blind body, O dinna ye see?
I gat it frae a brisk young sodger laddie,

Between Saint Johnston and bonnie Dundee.

O gin I saw the laddie that gae me 't!
Aft has he doudl'd me up on his knee;
May Heaven protect my bonnie Scots laddie,
And send him safe hame to his babie and me!

II.

My blessin's upon thy sweet wee lippie,

My blessin's upon thy bonnie e'e brie!

Thy smiles are sae like my blyth sodger laddie,
Thou's ay the dearer and dearer to me!
But I'll big a bower on yon bonnie banks,

Where Tay rins wimplin' by sae clear;
And I'll cleed thee in the tartan sae fine,

And mak thee a man like thy daddie dear.

Part of this song is old: all that is natural or tender in it was added by Burns. The title is very old when the accession of James to the English throne carried many Scotsmen to the south, several northern songs were travestied by the London ballad-makers, and made to throw ridicule on Scotland. Bonnie Dundee, as well as others, was compelled to utter strange words :-

"Where got'st thou that haver meal bonack?

Blind booby! canst thou not see?

Ise got it out of a Scotchman's wallet,
As he lig lousing him under a tree."

The story proceeds in a similar strain of elegance :

"With sword ready drawn they rode to the gate,
Where being denied an entrance thro',
The master and man they fought at that rate,
That some ran away, and others they slew ;
Thus Jockey the laird, and Sawney the man,
They valiantly fought, as Highlanders can ;
In spite of the loons they set themselves free,
And so bid adieu to bonnie Dundee."

And so they achieved their escape from durance, and were rewarded by the love of their mistresses.

THE JOYFUL WIDOWER.

Tune-" Maggy Lauder.”

I.

I MARRIED With a scolding wife
The fourteenth of November;
She made me weary of my life,
By one unruly member.
Long did I bear the heavy yoke,
And many griefs attended;
But, to my comfort be it spoke,
Now, now her life is ended.

II.

We liv'd full one-and-twenty years
A man and wife together;

At length from me her course she steer'd,
And gone I know not whither:
Would I could guess, I do profess,
I speak, and do not flatter,
Of all the women in the world,
I never could come at her.

III.

Her body is bestowed well,

A handsome grave does hide her;
But sure her soul is not in hell,

The deil would ne'er abide her.

I rather think she is aloft,

And imitating thunder;

For why, methinks I hear her voice
Tearing the clouds asunder.

The old Scottish lyric bards loved to sing of the sorrows of wedlock and the raptures of single blessedness. "The Auld Gudeman" is an admirable specimen of matrimonial infelicity; it forms a sort of rustic drama, and the surly pair scold verse and verse about. Burns, when he wrote "The Joyful Widower," thought on the strains of his elder brethren, and equalled, if he did not surpass them. It was first printed in the Musical Museum.

COME DOWN THE BACK STAIRS.

Tune-" Whistle, and I'll come to you, my Lad."

CHORUS.

O whistle, and I'll come

To you, my lad;

O whistle, and I'll come
To you, my lad:

Tho' father and mither

Should baith gae mad,

O whistle, and I'll come
To you, my lad.

COME down the back stairs

When ye come to court me;
Come down the back stairs

When ye come to court me;
Come down the back stairs,
And let naebody see,
And come as ye were na
Coming to me.

Burns wrote a better version of this lyric for Thomson; it is founded on the old fragment, but he poured his own feeling and fancy so happily through the whole, that not a single line of it remains entire, nor can the new be pronounced free of the language of the older minstrel. The air was composed by John Bruce, an excellent fiddler, who lived in Dumfries.