'll no' grant ye yere twa loves' lives,
Neither for gold or fee,
Nor will I be sae gude a man
As grant their lives to thee;
Before the morn at twelve o'clock
Ye'll see them hangit hie.'

13.
O he's ta'en out these proper youths,
And hang'd them on a tree,
And he's bidden the clerk o' Owsenford
Gang hame to his ladie.

14.
His lady sits on yon castle-wa',
Beholding dale and doun,
An' there she saw her ain gude lord
Come walkin' to the toun.

15.
'Ye're welcome, welcome, my ain gude lord,
Ye're welcome hame to me;
But where away are my twa sons?
Ye should hae brought them wi' ye.'

16.
'It's I've putten them to a deeper lair,
An' to a higher schule;
Yere ain twa sons 'ill no' be here
Till the hallow days o' Yule.'

17.
'O sorrow, sorrow, come mak' my bed,
An' dool come lay me doon!
For I'll neither eat nor drink,
Nor set a fit on ground.'

18.
The hallow days of Yule are come,
The nights are lang and dark;
An' in an' cam' her ain twa sons,
Wi' their hats made o' the bark.

19.
'O eat an' drink, my merry men a',
The better shall ye fare,
For my twa sons the[y] are come hame
To me for evermair.'

20.
She has gaen an' made their bed,
An' she's made it saft an' fine,
An' she's happit them wi' her gay mantel,
Because they were her ain.

21.
O the young cock crew i' the merry Linkem,
An' the wild fowl chirp'd for day;
The aulder to the younger did say,
'Dear brother, we maun away.'

22.
'Lie still, lie still, a little wee while,
Lie still but if we may;
For gin my mother miss us away,
She'll gae mad or it be day.'

23.
O it's they've ta'en up their mother's mantel,
And they've hang'd it on the pin:
'O lang may ye hing, my mother's mantel,
Or ye hap us again!'

[Annotations:
1.4: 'lair,' lesson. Cp. 16.1.
7.1 etc.: 'owsen,' oxen.
17.2: 'dool,' grief.
18: Here begins _The Wife of Usher's Well_ in a variant.
20.3: 'happit,' wrapped.
21.1: 'Linkem,' perhaps a stock ballad-locality, like 'Lin,' etc.
See First Series, Introduction, p. 1.]

THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL

1.
There lived a wife at Usher's Well,
And a wealthy wife was she;
She had three stout and stalwart sons,
And sent them o'er the sea.

2.
They hadna been a week from her,
A week but barely