Francis James Child

“ There was music and minstrels and dancing and all.
But they'll never, etc.
8 'O Willie. O Willie. what makes thee in pain?'
‘I have lost a sheath and knife that I'll never see again.'
For we'll never, etc.
9 'There is ships o your father's sailing on the sea
That will bring as good a sheath and a knife unto thee.'
10 'There is ships o my father's sailing on the sea,
But sic a sheath and a knife they can never bring to me.'
Now we'll never, etc.
B
Sharpe's Ballad Book, ed. ”

“ Scott makes Effie Deans, in The Heart of Mid-Lothian, vol. I, ch. 10, sing this stanza, probably of his own making:
The elfin knight sat on the brae,
The broom grows bonny, the broom grows fair
And by there came lilting a lady so gay. ”

“ Sheath and Knife
a. Motherwell's MS., p. 286. b. 'The broom blooms bonnie and says it is fair,' Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 189.Sharpe's Ballad Book, ed. by D. Laing, p. 159.'The broom blooms bonie,' Johnson’s Museum, No 461.Notes and Queries, First Series, V, 345, one stanza. The three stanzas of this ballad which are found in the Musical Museum (C) were furnished, it is said, by Burns. It was first printed in full (A b) in Motherwell's Minstrelsy. Motherwell retouched a verse here and there slightly, to regulate the metre. A a is here given as it stands in his manuscript. ”