Sentimental reciter/The Sailor's Return

THE SAILOR’S RETURN.

When time brought me back to my father’s again,
To our auld cot that stood by the glen side alane:
Wi’ a changed heart I passed by the burn an’ the shaw
Whaur I sported the blythe hours o’ boyhood awa’.

I stepp’d in at the door, and I look’d a’ aroun’,
But I saw na a face an’ I heard na a soun’;
At length frae the room my auld faither crept nigh,
But he kenn'd na the face o’ his ain sailor boy.

I took the wee creepy the first thing I gat,
Syne doon by the ance cheery ingle I sat—
Quo’ I, this shall be my hame for ae nicht I ween,
It is lang since I sat by a peat hearth at e’en.

My faither said, freely yese share o’ my hame,
Wha kens, my ain boy may be seekin’ the same;
He has long been awa’ at the wearisome sea,
And a sailor’s like ane o’ my ain house to me.

Three sisters, a’ young things when I gaed awa’,
Were noo grown to women, an’ married were twa’;
The third wi’ my faither, gay, blythsome and free,
Cam’ in unco weel pleased a sailor to sec.

I had a gude store o’ the rich gowden coin,
For fortune in thae days upon me did shine—
Wi’ a feck o’t, I said, tak’ this present frae me,
And thank your ain boy for’t, sae lang at the sea.

They looked upon ither, while fast the tears fell;
They spak’ na a word, and I maist grat mysel’,
But silent they look’d, gaid an’ cam’ back again,
Amaist fear'd to ask me if I was their ain.

We sat maist a’ night an’ the peats gat a heize;
I thought the auld cot wad hae burn’d wi’ the bleeze.
My sister, wi’ merry heart, tauld me maist a’
That was strange frae the vera day I gaed awa’.

My faither seem’d shakin’ aff some o’ his years,
As be ran o’er his combats, his hopes, and his fears;
An’ in pride o’ auld age cam’ the look and the smile,
That tauld hoo his heart was uplifted the while.

That night I forgat a’ the toil an’ the pain
O’ wearisome years on the dangerous main;
But my mither was gane ere I gaed to the sea,
An' a sigh o' regret passed amid a’ the glee.