Wife of Usher's Well
From Hull AWE
- 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."