But if time was a thing man could buy
All the money that I have in store
I would give for one day by her side
In the valley of Strathmore

From the glen of the golden and the green
I left for a land far away
Where sadness has never been seen
And joy only costs a day’s pay

In Strathmore there’s a long working day
For a man with his hands on the plough
But it’s work I’d be happy to do
If at night I were lying with you

As I take a long draft from my glass
Oh I’m drinking alone here again
And I try not to think of my lass
For the old days will ne’er come again.

When you rise in the morning
In the fair month of June
Shield your eyes from the sunlight
It would brighten any room
And be sure hae your breakfast
For you’ll toil all the day
For the weeds are aye growin’
And the lambs are astray

And an hour in the gloaming’s
Worth ten in the day
Wi my love by the waters
Where the wild fishes play
When I’ve topped all the thistles
From the whole farm around
You will find me wi’ my darling
By the banks o the Doon

Well the life of a ploughboy
Can be easiest in June
For the plough must lie idle
While the barley’s in the groun‘
But the farmer if he’s minded
Aye can find a thousand things
Frae the first crow of morning
Till the bats find their wings

Oh my Jean she’s as lovely
As the hawthorn in May
she’s as comely as a swan
On the strand of Alloway
If her faither will allow me
For a wedding I’m prepared
But my daddy’s just a cottar
And her faither he’s a laird

If her faither will not hear me
I will surely be forlorn
For the chances of a suitor’s
Oft decided when he’s born
But if fortune can be taken
By some quest to foreign land
I’ll adventure for my darling
And return a wealthy man.

On the first cold day
Of the end of the year
When the sun still strayed
And the sky was clear
On the first cold day
It was perfectly still
And the frost still lay
High on Craigie hill

Now I'm out on my own
Driving on through some place
And the Tennessee sunshine
Is burning my face
I'm not totally here
For my mind slips away
To be walking with you
Along the river Tay

On the first cold day
It had iced the windscreen
It was still two weeks
Shy of Hallowe’en
On the first cold day
You were scraping it free
And you made a hole
So we all could see
Now I'm out on my own
Driving on through some place
And the Tennessee sunshine
Is burning my face
I'm not totally here
For my mind slips away
To be walking with you
Along the river Tay

On the first cold day
I was flying away
And I said goodbyes
That were hard to say
On the first cold day
When it was perfectly still
I began to move
And I'm travelling still

Now I'm out on my own
Driving on through some place
And the Tennessee sunshine
Is burning my face
I'm not totally here
And my mind slips away
To be walking with you
Along the river Tay.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Oh the shearin’s no for you
My bonny lassie oh
Oh the shearin’s no for you
My bonny lassie oh,
Oh the shearin’s no for you
For yer back it winna boo
And yer belly’s growin’ fu’
My bonny lassie oh

Dae ye mind yon banks o Ayr
My bonny lassie oh
Dae ye mind yon banks o Ayr
My bonny lassie oh
Dae ye mind yon banks o Ayr
When ye held me in yer snare
And our love we did declare
My bonny lassie oh

Pu’ the buckles frae yer shin
My bonny lassie oh
Pu’ the buckles frae yer shin
My bonny lassie oh
Pu’ the buckles frae yer shin
For ye've married sic a loon
And yer dancin days are done
My bonny lassie oh

Pu’ the ribbons frae yer hair
My bonny lassie oh
Pu’ the ribbons frae yer hair
My bonny lassie oh
Pu’ the ribbons frae yer hair
And let doon yer ringlets fair
And we’ll sleep withoot a care
My bonny lassie oh.

Well I’m just getting back frae a wee social crack
At the public hoose doon by the station
We blaw’d off oor heids, wi a’ oor grand deeds
And the things that’s important tae nations
When my guid brother Jim, he come
runnin in,
And by God, he did gie us a swearin’,
Ye ocht to feel shamed for ye should have been hame
For your Maggie she’s haein a bairn

Well I didna tak time for tae bid them goodnicht
‘Fore oot the pub door I gaed spinning
I ran up the lane, the shortest road hame
Never lookin tae where I was running
When I tripped ower a stane, nearly brak my shin bane
I rowed intae a heap o coo’s sharn
My clathes were a sicht, would gie ye a fricht
The nicht that oor Mag had her bairn

When I got tae the door there was whisky galore
On the table was cheese, the best gowdie
And a neighbour she spied and here’s what she cried:
“Ye’d best run awa for the howdie.”
Wi a glass in her hand, she bid me nae stand:
“Run away now for Mistress McLaren,
She’s the best in the toon when a woman lies doon
And ye’ll soon hae a bonny braw bairn.”

Well I ran for the midwife and I soon found her oot
She thocht I had left o my senses
When I fell through the floor and I started tae roar:
“Come awa wife, and I’ll pay all expenses.
If ye don’t see my wife, she will soon lose her life,
She’s as fat as yon bundles o yarn.
If ye dee yer job richt, ye’ll be well paid the nicht,”
The nicht that our Mag had her bairn

When you’ve got on in life, and ye have a braw wife
Yer troubles and joys to be sharin’
I’m sae happy within I could leap oot my skin
For my Maggie’s jist had a braw bairn.

Well I lingered long in Delaware
Where the folks were warm and kind
But I hankered to travel westward
Find some land that could be mine
So I trailed across to Harrisburg
Through some country I thought
sublime
Till I saw the Susquehanna
Running wider than the Clyde

I claimed land across the river
And began to clear the trees
And I borrowed three hundred dollars
To buy stock, a plough and seed
But my first years were struck
by pestilence
And my third went up in flames
In my despair I sought the table
Where I gambled everything

I abandoned life as a farmer
Seeking work in a Jonestown mine
And though the work is dark and
dangerous
And fickle nature she can't me find
Though my hands are stiff and
broken now
Drinking whisky dulls the pain
If I repay my obligation
I'll mine gold across the plains.