Tarry woo/Tarry woo

tarry woo.

Tarry woo, tarry woo,
⁠Tarry woo is ill to spin,
Card it weel, card it weel,
Card it weel ere ye begin.
When ’tis carded, row’d and spun,
Then the work is haflens done;
But when woven, drest and clean,
It may be cleading for a queen.

⁠Sing, my bonny harmless sheep,
That feed upon the mountains steep,
Bleeting sweetly as ye go
Thro' the winter's frost and snow;
Hart and hynd and fallow deer
No be ha‘f so useful are;
Frae kings to him that hands the plow,
Are all oblig'd to tarry woo.

⁠Up ye shepherds, dance and skip,
O'er the hills and valleys trip,
Sing up the praise of tarry woo,
Sing the flocks that bear it too:
Harmless creatures without blame,
That dead the back and cram the wame
Keep us warm and hearty fou!
Lease me on the tarry woo.

⁠How happy is a shepherd's life,
Far frae courts and free of strife,
Wile the gimmers bleet and bae,
And the lambkins answer mae?
No such musick to his ear,
Of thief or fox he has no fear;
Sturdy kent, and colly too,
Well defend the tarry woo.

⁠He lives content, and envies none;
Not even a monarch on his throne,
Who’ he the royal sceptre sways,
Has not sweeter holidays,
Who'd be a king, can ony tell,
When a shepherd sings sae well;
Sings sae vrell, and pays his due,
With honest heart and tarry woo?

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