'O wow for day! _(diddle)_
An' dear gin it were day! _(diddle)_
Gin it were day, and gin I were away,
For I ha' na lang time to stay.' _(diddle)_

12.
'What needs ye lang for day, _(diddle)_
An' wish that you were away? _(diddle)_
Is no your hounds i' my cellar.
Eating white meal and gray?' _(diddle)_
'O wow for day,' _etc._

13.
'Is nae you[r] steed in my stable,
Eating good corn an' hay?
An' is nae your hawk i' my perch-tree,
Just perching for his prey?
An' is nae yoursel i' my arms twa?
Then how can ye lang for day?'

14.
'O wow for day! _(diddle)_
An' dear gin it were day! _(diddle)_
For he that's in bed wi' anither man's wife
Has never lang time to stay.' _(diddle)_

15.
Then out the knight has drawn his sword,
An' straiked it o'er a strae,
An' thro' and thro' the fa'se knight's waste
He gard cauld iron gae:
An' I hope ilk ane sal sae be serv'd
That treats ane honest man sae.

[Annotations:
2.4: 'blate,' astonished, abashed.
7.1: 'clecked,' hatched.
8.1: 'A Farrow Cow is a Cow that gives Milk in the second year after
her Calving, having no Calf that year.'--Holme's _Armoury_, 1688.
8.3: 'wanny,' wand, rod: 'simmer-dale,' apparently = summer-dale.
8.4: 'sindle,' seldom.
10.5: 'crap,' top.
10.6: 'dight,' freely, readily.
15.1-4: Cp. _Clerk Sanders_, 15.]

[Illustration]

FAIR ANNIE

+The Text+ is that of Scott's _Minstrelsy_, 'chiefly from the recitation
of an old woman.' Scott names the ballad 'Lord Thomas and Fair Annie,'
adding to the confusion already existing with 'Lord Thomas and Fair
Annet.'

+The Story.+--Fair Annie, stolen from the home of her father, the Earl
of Wemyss, by 'a knight out o'er the sea,' has borne seven sons to him.
He now bids her prepare to welcome home his real bride, and she meekly
obeys, suppressing her tears with difficulty. Lord Thomas and his
new-come bride hear, through the wall of their bridal chamber, Annie
bewailing her lot, and wishing her seven sons had never been born. The
bride goes to comfort her, discovers in her a long-lost sister, and
departs, thanking heaven she goes a maiden home.

Of this ballad, Herd printed a fragment in 1769, some stanzas being
incorporated in the present version. Similar tales abound in the
folklore of Scandinavia, Holland, and Germany. But, three hundred years
older than any version of the balla