The merry Ploughman.
[This fragment Cromek found in Burns's handwriting and published it in the Reliques, as a production of the poet's. Gilbert Burns, however, says, that the verses were popular in Ayrshire long before his brother was born.]
As I was a wand'ring ae morning in spring,
I heard a merry ploughman sae sweetly to sing;
And as he was singin' thae words he did say,
There's nae life like the ploughman in the month o' sweet May.—
The lav'rock in the morning she'll rise frae her nest,
And mount to the air wi' the dew on her breast;
And wi' the merry ploughman she'll whistle and sing;
And at night she'll return to her nest back again.