Lassie

“ When the lassie had walked a long, long way farther on, and was not far from the hedge, she heard again that awful clatter on the road behind her, and she got scared and frightened, for she knew well enough it was the old hag and her daughter, who had changed their minds.
"Come hither to me, lassie," said the Hedge, "and I'll help you. Creep under my twigs, so that they can't see you; else they'll take the casket from you, and tear you to death." ”

“ The door was open, and the afternoon light fell upon no more pleasant sight than the bright shapely Highland lassie, whose sleeves were tucked up to the elbow, her dress pinned behind, while her hands were deftly shaping butter with the aid of a pair of wooden 'clatters' into tempting rounded pats, each pat being dropped, by a quick graceful turn of her skilful hands, into a dish of clear spring-water beside her. ”

“ Smile again, my bonnie lassie, lassie, smile again,
Prithee, do not frown, sweet lassie, for it gives me pain.
⁠If to love thee too sincerely be fault in me,
⁠Thus to use me so severely is not kind in thee. ”

“ For many years I had cared little for the face of a woman. As I lay in my hammock upstairs, however, I heard the old woman, as she chafed the warmth back into her, crooning a chorus of "Eh, the puir lassie! Eh, the bonnie lassie!" from which I gathered that this piece of jetsam was both young and comely.
The morning after the gale was peaceful and sunny. As I walked along the long sweep of sand I could hear the panting of the sea. It was heaving and swirling about the reef, but along the shore it rippled in gently enough. ”

“ For Lassie, even now when indubitably miserable, pink-eyed and wretched, was still a very pretty girl. A pretty girl is very much like a rose in the rain—a few drops of water only add to its charm; and so when Ingram came suddenly upon her, crying there under a tree, and caused her to look up with a little scream at the man crashing out of the bushes with such a force of interruption as made her jump to her feet and shrink quickly away—why, really it was all far less startling and alarming than it sounds to read about. ”

“ Being weary with travel the lassie sat down;
Get up my brave lassie and let us step on,
For the sun will get round before we get home.
⁠My feet are all torn, my shoes are all rent,
I'm wearied with travel, and just like to faint. ”

“ Well, it is altogether a very mysterious and unpleasant thing to have happened in this old house, and my pretty lassie, I see, does not forget it. She seems to mope, and to get a bit melancholy now and then. I fancy her eyes are not so bright as they used to be; she doesn't talk so much, or sing so much about the house. ”

“ It was a handsome, but seriously perplexed, face which bent over the letters, and more than once the shapely hand was raised to the puckered forehead and the fingers thrust impatiently through the golden brown hair, setting it on end and causing its owner to look more distracted than ever.
“Poor, wee lassie, you little realize what a problem you are to me. Would to God the one best qualified to solve it could have been spared to you,” and the handsome head fell forward upon the hands, as tears of bitter anguish flooded the brown eyes. ”

“ He was hailed as a prosperous prodigal, for he too was a lad of metal, but he brought one with him that made poor Lassie start and tremble. It was a lady, young and beautiful, clad in deep mourning. Although sad and retiring, there was that dangerous charm about her which men are lured by, and which women dread—a subtle influence of look and gesture and tone that sets the pulses mad. ”

“ In all these the lassie is bright, and good, and helpful; she forgets herself in her eagerness to help others. When she goes down the well after the unequal match against her step-sister in spinning bristles against flax; she steps tenderly over the hedge, milks the cow, shears the sheep, relieves the boughs of the apple-tree—all out of the natural goodness of her heart. When she is sent to fetch water from the well, she washes and brushes, and even kisses, the loathsome head; she believes what her enemies say, even to her own wrong and injury ”

“ So when the lassie came home looking so lovely, and beaming as the bright day itself, her stepmother and hei stepsister got more and more cross, and they got worse still when she began to talk, and they saw how golden guineas fell from her mouth. As for the stepmother, she got so mad with rage, she chased the lassie into the pigsty. ”

“ Joy may come, but never make
⁠The present like the past, lassie!
Fare thee weel! the future will
⁠Through peril, toil, and pain, lassie,
Bring me back, to find thee still
⁠In faithful love my ain lassie! ”

“ The lassie taking tent unto the door she went,
⁠And she open'd and lat him in.
And are ye come at last! and do I hold you fast!
⁠And is my Johnny true?
I have nae time to tell, but sae lang's I like mysel',
⁠Sae lang sall I like you.
Flee up, flee up, my bonnie grey cock,
⁠And craw when it is day,
And your neck shall be like the bonnie beaten gold,
⁠And your wings of the silver grey.
The cock proved false, and untrue he was,
⁠For he crew an hour owre soon:
The lassie thought it day when she sent her love away,
⁠And it was but a blink of the moon. ”

“ So after they had lived together a while, the lassie was to have a child, and when the child came to be born the Prince set a strong watch round her; but at the birth one and all fell into a deep sleep, and her foster-mother came, cut the babe on its little finger, and smeared the queen's mouth with the blood ”

“ And genius, with the foodful looks of youthful friendship, past,
Though my path is dark and lonely, now, o'er this world's dreary sea —
Here's a health, my Scottish lassie! here's a hearty health to thee!
Here's to thee, my Scottish lassie!—though I know that not for me
Is thine eye so bright, thy form so light, and thy step so firm and free ”

“ Poor little lassie, although what might be called a rich girl, in one respect she was a very poor one indeed, for she had scarcely known the influence of a happy home, or the tender mother love which we all need, whether we be big daughters or little ones. ”

“ My love she's but a lassie.
[James Hogg.—For the original song of "My love she's but a lassie yet," see page 512.]
My love she's but a lassie yet,
A lightsome lovely lassie yet;
⁠It scarce wad do
⁠To sit an' woo
Down by the stream sae glassy yet,
But there's a braw time coming yet,
When we may pang a-roaming yet;
⁠An' hint wi' glee
⁠O' joys to be,
When fa's the modest gloaming yet.
She's neither proud nor saucy yet,
She's neither plump nor gaucy yet ”

“ Our only chance is in Lassie. Here! roll thee in my maud, lad, and lay thee down on this sheltered side of this bit of rock. Creep close under it, lad, and I’ll lie by thee, and strive to keep the warmth in us. Stay! hast gotten aught about thee they’ll know at home?”
I felt him unkind thus to keep me from slumber, but on his repeating the question, I pulled out my pocket-handkerchief, of some showy pattern, which Aunt Fanny had hemmed for me—Gregory took it, and tied it round Lassie’s neck. ”

“ And the sun smiled to show the end was well.
Infants have nought to weep for ere they die;
All prayers are needless, beads they need not tell,
White flowers their mourners are, Nature their passing bell.
BONNIE LASSIE O! O the evening's for the fair, bonny lassie O!
To meet the cooler air and join an angel there,
With the dark dishevelled hair,
Bonny lassie O!
The bloom's on the brere, bonny lassie O!
Oak apples on the tree; and wilt thou gang to see
The shed I've made for thee,
Bonny lassie O!
'T is agen the running brook, bonny lassie O! ”

“ At last the king and queen took into their palace a stranger lassie to rear up, that they might have her always with them, to love her if she did well, and scold her if she did wrong, like their own child.
So one day the little lassie whom they had taken as their own, ran down into the palace yard, and was playing with a gold apple. Just then an old beggar wife came by, who had a little girl with her, and it wasn’t long before the little lassie and the beggar’s bairn were great friends, and began to play together, and to toss the gold apple about between them. ”

“ If a lady has long lashes, must she never droop them lest she be charged with coquetry? May not a flush spring as naturally from shy reserve as from immodesty?
Lassie's lover did take charge of this dangerous siren to escort her to the head-quarters at Louisville. But just before starting he came to Lassie with a certain eagerness, as one who is going into battle might, and assured her, again and again, of his faith. ”

“ Alva glanced quickly into both their faces and then at Lassie.
Mrs. Ray tucked the ends of her shawl in, folded her arms, and closed her lips tightly for a second before opening them to speak. "I never did like their looks," she declared. "I'm not surprised over what's come out!"
"I never liked their looks, either," said Lassie, "but what is it? Has anything happened?"
"No," said Mrs. Ray, "nothing in particular, only we're beginning to find them out. You can't pretend to be somebody forever without any trunks. Case-knives are good in their way, but they don't take the place of trunks." ”

“ O wat ye wha that lo'es me And has my heart a-keeping? O sweet is she that lo'es me, As dews o' summer weeping, In tears the rosebuds steeping! Chorus—O that's the lassie o' my heart, My lassie ever dearer; O she's the queen o' womankind, And ne'er a ane to peer her. If thou shalt meet a lassie, In grace and beauty charming, That e'en thy chosen lassie, Erewhile thy breast sae warming, Had ne'er sic powers alarming; O that's the lassie, &c. If thou hadst heard her talking, And thy attention's plighted, That ilka body talking, But her, by thee is slighted, And thou art all delighted ”

“ They were not just well-dressed, well-mannered nobodies that Mrs Manners entertained. Many of them were men and women who had been heard of in the world for their worth or their wisdom, or for good work of one kind or another done by them. And this blithe and bonny lassie, who enjoyed her play with the child and her sight-seeing with the old man, was not out of place among them. She was young and a little shy of folk that seemed great folk to her, and she was very quiet and silent among them. ”

“ At the commencement of the game the children stand in a large ring, and the girl who is to be 'Lame lassie' stands in the centre. The children then say:—
Now Lame lassie give us chase,
Get one quick to fill your place.
They all run off, and 'Lame lassie' follows until she manages to touch some other child. Wherever the latter is touched, she must place her hand on that [73] particular spot and run after the others until she is successful in reaching some one else. Sometimes a child will be holding its shoulder or elbow, or it may have to hold up one leg and hop on the other. ”

“ And pitching the high notes o’ bangor,
⁠ has driven her a’ out o’ tune.
Be pleas’d to marry your lassie,
⁠O marry your lassie to me!
For I’ m resolv'd to hae her,
⁠whether she live or die ;
Whether she live or die,
⁠to mak her my wedded wife :
So I’ll live with my lassie
a sweet and contented life.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. ”

“ When, that night, at locking-up-time, Octave had not appeared, and Paula went to the room the sisters shared in common, hoping to find the wild-cap safe in bed, although the sheets had been turned down and then shaken, as if the well-grown lassie could by any possibility be hiding within them, there was great consternation in the household.
“She is always up to pranks, but she does not generally treat us unkindly,” said the aggrieved elder girl, feeling somehow that the house was not a “Snuggery” without the sharpest of the “pickles.” ”

“ Lassie wi’ the lintwhite locks.
[Written by Burns for Thomson's collection, to the tune of "Rothiemurchus' Rant." The heroine was Jean Lorimer, of whom we have had occasion to speak in previous notes.]
⁠Lassie wi' the lint-white locks,
⁠Bonnie lassie, artless lassie,
⁠Wilt thou wi' me tend the flocks ':
⁠Wilt thou be my dearie, O?
Now Nature cleads the flowery lea,
⁠And a' is young and sweet like thee ”

“ Eh, lassie! but they’re a brae couple, and Heaven be gracious to them!”
“Amen!” said Jane, softly, as, with dewy eyes, she rested upon her husband’s shoulder, and continued to gaze at the sight before them.
“They say it’s a vale o’ sorrows, this warld, Jenny lassie,” said McCray, taking off and wiping his spectacles; “but to my way of thinking, it’s a verra beautiful gairden, full of bright floors and sweet rich fruits. But ye ken, lassie, that there’s that de’il—muckle sorrow to him—a’ways pitching his tares and his bad seeds ower the wall, for them to come oop in weeds ”

“ Though ither eyes may brilliance dart,
⁠And bright as diamonds roll, lassie!
There's nane but yours shoot through my heart,
⁠An' soften a' my soul, lassie!
⁠Oh! gin ye were, &c.
Each motion shows some grace that's new,
⁠That fascinates my eyes, lassie! ”

“ Can ye lo'e me weel, lassie, to this heart then swiftly flee,
Here you aye shall dwell, lassie, more than a' the world to me,
When the moonbeams shine sae clear, at that hour by lovers blest,
At the gloamin', lassie dear, haste to meet this throbbing breast. ”

“ Amang thae wild mountains shall still be my path, Ilk stream foaming down its ain green, narrow strath; For there, wi' my lassie, the day lang I rove, While o'er us unheeded flie the swift hours o'love. She is not the fairest, altho' she is fair; O' nice education but sma' is her share; Her parentage humble as humble can be; But I lo'e the dear lassie because she lo'es me. To Beauty what man but maun yield him a prize, In her armour of glances, and blushes, and sighs? And when wit and refinement hae polish'd her darts, They dazzle our een, as they flie to our hearts. ”