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There lived a wife at Usher's Well,
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And a wealthy wife was she;
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She had three stout and stalwart sons,
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And sent them over the sea.
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They hadna been a week from her,
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A week but barely ane,
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Whan word came to the carline wife,
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That her three sons were gane.
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They hadna been a week from her,
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A week but barely three,
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Whan word came to the carlin wife
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That her three sons were gone.
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"I wish the wind may never cease,
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Nor fashes in the flood,
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Till my three sons come hame to me,
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In earthly flesh and blood."
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It befell about the Martinmass,
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When nights are long and mirk,
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The carlin wife's three sons came hame,
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And their hats were o the birk.
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It neither grew in syke nor ditch,
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Nor yet in ony sheugh;
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But at the gates o Paradise,
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That birk grew fair enough
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"Blow up the fire my maidens,
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Bring water from the well;
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For a' my house shall feast this night,
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Since my three sons are well."
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And she has made to them a bed,
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She's made it large and wide,
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And she's taen her mantle her about,
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Sat down at the bed-side.
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Up then crew the red, red, cock,
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And up the crew the gray;
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The eldest to the youngest said,
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'Tis time we were away.
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The cock he hadna crawed but once,
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And clappd his wings at a',
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When the youngest to the eldest said,
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Brother, we must awa.
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The cock doth craw, the day both daw,
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The cahannerin worm doth chide;
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Gin we be mist out o our place,
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A sair pain we maun bide.
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"Fare ye weel, my mother dear!
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Fareweel to barn and byre!
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And fare ye weel, the bonny lass
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That kindles my mother's fire!"
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The Wife of Usher's Well
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| Andreas Scholl |
