Oh! I will card and I will spin,
Nickety, &c.
And never mair think on my gentle kin,
Hey Willie, &c.
Oh! I will wash and I will wring,
Nickety, &c.
And never mair think on my gouden ring,
Hey Willie, &c.
A' ye wha ha'e gotten a gentle wife,
Nickety, nackety, woo, woo, woo;
Send ye for the wee cooper o' Fife,
Hey Willie Wallacky, how John Dougall,
Alane, quo' rushety, roue, roue, roue.
The bonnie red ribbon.
[Andrew Sharpe.]
My Sandy was handsome, good-natur'd, and gay;
An' my Sandy wad never gainsay me;
An' down in St. Johnston, ae braw market day,
A bonnie red ribbon he ga'e me.
Nane looked like Sandy, sae mild and sae meek;
An' nane could sae winsome array me;
But death came and withered the rose on his check,
That was red as the ribbon he ga'e me.
Now lanely I wander o'er mountain an' moss,
Or where fancy wild wishes to stray me;
And tell, wi' a tear-weet-e'e, Sandy's sad loss,
To the bonnie red ribbon he ga'e me.
But shortly, some ev'ning amang the saft dew,
Low down in his grave will I lay me;
Syne bid a' the sorrows I suffer adieu!
An' the bonnie red ribbon he ga'e me.
Willie wi’ his wig a-jee.
[William Chalmers.]
Oh, saw ye Willie frae the west?
Oh, saw ye Willie in his glee?
Oh, saw ye Willie frae the west,
When he had got his wig a-jee?
There's "Scots wha ha'e wi' Wallace bled,"
He towers it up in sic a key,
Oh saw ye Willie, hearty lad,
When he had got his wig a-jee.
To hear him sing a canty air,
He lilts it o'er sae charmingly,
That in a moment aff flies care,
When Willie gets his wig a-jee.
Let drones croon o'er a winter night,
A fig for them, whate'er they be,
For I could sit till morning light,
Wi' Willie and his wig a-jee.
At kirk on Sundays, sic a change
Comes o'er his wig, and mou', and e'e,
Sae douse—you'd think a cannon ball
Wad scarce ca' Willie's wig a-jee.
But when on Mondays be begins,
And rants and roars continually,
Till ilk owk's end, the very weans
Gang daft—when Willie's wig's a-jee.
O, whistle.
[The air called "O, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad," was composed by John Bruce, a famous fiddler in Dumfries, about the middle of the last century. O'Keefe introduced it into his comic opera of "The Poor Soldier," acted at Covent Garden in 1783. "Since love is the plan, I'll love if I can," is the opening of the song to which it is there adapted. Burns wrote two sets of words to the tune—retaining the name of the tune for his opening line—the first set, consisting of only two verses, written in 1787 for Johnson's Museum; the second set written in 1793 for Thomson's collection. We give both.]
I.
O, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad,
O, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad,
Tho' father and mither and a' should gae mad,
O, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad.
Come down the back stairs when you come to court me,
Come down the back stairs when you come to court me,
Come down the back stairs, and let nae body see,
And come as ye were na coming to me.
