09 



Motherwell. 

 If ye speak to any body in the world, 

 I pray ye speak to me." 



Hume. 



" Oh ! the lead it is wondrous heavy, mother, 



The well it is wondrous deep, 

 The little penknife sticks in my throat, 



And I downa to ye speak. 



Yes mother, dear, I am here, 

 I know I have staid very long ; 



But a little penknife was stuck in my heart, 

 Till the stream ran down full strong. 



And mother, dear, when you go home, 



Tell my playfellows all, 

 That I lost my life by leaving them 



When playing that game of ball. 



" And go to the back of Maitland town,* 

 Bring me my winding-sheet ; 



For its at the back of Maitland town 

 That you and I shall meet. 



And ere another day is gone, 

 My winding-sheet prepare, 



And bury me in the green church-yard 

 Where the flowers are bloomin' fair. 



" But lift me out o' this deep draw-well, 

 And bury me in yon church-yard ; 



Put a Bible at my head, he says, 

 And a Testament at my feet, 



And pen and ink at every side, 

 And I'll lie still and sleep." 



Lay my Bible at my head,* 

 My Testament at my feet ; 



The earth and worms shall be my bed, 

 Till Christ and I shall meet. 



O the broom, the bonny, bonny broom, 

 The broom that makes full sore, 



A woman's mercy is very little, 

 But a man's mercy is more.+ 



* This and the next verse are transposed, 

 that the sequence of events may harmonise 

 in this and the other versions 

 + A clumsy moral 



* This is obviously uot older than the 

 close of the sixteenth or beginning of the 

 seventeenth century. 



