Page:The poetical works of Robert Burns.djvu/100

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THE POEMS OF BURNS.
And now tho' I must beg, with a wooden arm and leg, And many a tatter'd rag hanging over my bum, I'm as happy with my wallet, my bottle, and my callet, As when I used in scarlet to follow a drum. Lal de daudle, etc. 
What tho' with hoary locks, I must stand the winter shocks, Beneath the woods and rocks, oftentimes for a home; When the t'other bag I sell, and the tother bottle tell, I could meet a troop of hell at the sound of a drum.
RECITATIVO.He ended; and the kebars sheuk Aboon the chorus roar; While frighted rattons backward leuk, And seek the benmost bore: A fairy fiddler frae the neuk, He skirl'd out encore!But up arose the martial chuck, And laid the loud uproar.
AIR.Tune—'Sodger Laddie'
I once was a maid, tho' I cannot tell when, And still my delight is in proper young men; Some one of a troop of dragoons was my daddie, No wonder I'm fond of a sodger laddie, Sing, Lal de lal, etc.  
The first of my loves was a swaggering blade, To rattle the thundering drum was his trade; His leg was so tight, and his cheek was so ruddy, Transported I was with my sodger laddie. Sing, Lal de lal, etc. 
But the godly old chaplain left him in the lurch,So the sword I forsook for the sake of the church; He ventur'd the soul, and I risked the body, 'Twas then I prov'd false to my sodger laddie. Sing, Lal de lal, etc. 
Full soon I grew sick of the sanctified sot, The regiment at large for a husband I got; From the gilded spontoon to the fife I was ready, I asked no more but a sodger laddie. Sing, Lal de lal, etc. 
But the peace it reduc'd me to beg in despair, Till I met my old boy at a Cunningham fair; His rags regimental they flutter'd so gaudy, My heart it rejoic'd at a sodger laddie. Sing, Lal de lal, etc. 
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