Wife of Usher's Well

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The Wife of Usher's Well


This is a traditional ballad. 'Carline' means 'witch'; 'birk' means 'birch [tree]'; 'syke' and 'sheugh' are both a 'ditch'


There liv'd a wife at Usher's Well,
An' a carline wife was she:
She had three stout and stalwart sons,
And she sent them ower the sea


They hadna been a week frae her
A week but barely ane,
When word cam' to the carline wife
That her three sons were gane.


They hadna been a week frae her
A week but barely three,
When word cam' to the carline wife
That her sons she'd never see.


"I wish the storms might never cease
Nor flashes in the flood
Till my three sons come hame to me,
In earthly flesh and blood."


It fell about the Martinmass.
When nights are lang and mirk,
That her three sons cam hame to her
And their hats were o' the birk.


It neither grew in syke nor ditch,
Nor yet in ony sheugh;
But at the gates o' paradise
That birk grew fair eneugh.


"Blow up the fire my maidens;
Fetch water from the well;
For a' my house shall feast tonight
Since my three sons are well."


And she has made to them a bed,
She's made it large and wide;
She's taken her mantle her about,
Sat down at the bedside.


Then up and crew the red red cock,
And up and crew the grey.
The eldest to the youngest said,
"Brother, we must away:"


"The cock doth craw, the day doth daw,

The channering worm doth chide;
Gin we be missed out o' our place,
A sair pain we maun bide."


"Oh fare ye weel, my mither dear;
Farewell to barn and byre;
And fare ye weel, the bonny lass
That kindles my mither's fire."