BALLAD.

The auld wife sat at her ivied door,

( Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese )

A thing she had frequently done before;

And her spectacles lay on her apron'd knees.

The piper he piped on the hill-top high,

( Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese )

Till the cow said “I die,” and the goose ask'd “Why?”

And the dog said nothing, but search'd for fleas.

The farmer he strode through the square farmyard;

( Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese )

His last brew of ale was a trifle hard -

The connexion of which with the plot one sees.

The farmer's daughter hath frank blue eyes;

( Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese )

She hears the rooks caw in the windy skies,

As she sits at her lattice and shells her peas.

The farmer's daughter hath ripe red lips;

( Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese )

If you try to approach her, away she skips

Over tables and chairs with apparent ease.

The farmer's daughter hath soft brown hair;

( Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese )

And I met with a ballad, I can n't say where,

Which wholly consisted of lines like these.