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| BONNIE Bessie Lee had a face fu’ o’ smiles, | |
| And mirth round her ripe lip was aye dancing slee; | |
| And light was the footfa’, and winsome the wiles, | |
| O’ the flower o’ the parochin—our ain Bessie Lee. | |
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| Wi’ the bairns she would rin, and the school laddies paik, | 5 |
| And o’er the broomy braes like a fairy would flee, | |
| Till auld hearts grew young again wi’ love for her sake: | |
| There was life in the blithe blink o’ Bonnie Bessie Lee. | |
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| She grat wi’ the waefu’, and laugh’d wi’ the glad, | |
| And light as the wind ’mang the dancers was she; | 10 |
| And a tongue that could jeer, too, the little limmer had, | |
| Whilk keepit aye her ain side for Bonnie Bessie Lee. | |
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| And she whiles had a sweetheart, and sometimes had twa— | |
| A limmer o’ a lassie!—but, atween you and me, | |
| Her warm wee bit heartie she ne’er threw awa’, | 15 |
| Though mony a ane had sought it frae Bonnie Bessie Lee. | |
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| But ten years had gane since I gaz’d on her last, | |
| For ten years had parted my auld hame and me; | |
| And I said to mysel’, as her mither’s door I past, | |
| “Will I ever get anither kiss frae Bonnie Lee?” | 20 |
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| But Time changes a’ thing—the ill-natur’d loon! | |
| Were it ever sae rightly he ’ll no let it be; | |
| But I rubbit at my een, and I thought I would swoon, | |
| How the carle had come roun’ about our ain Bessie Lee! | |
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| The wee laughing lassie was a gudewife grown auld, | 25 |
| Twa weans at her apron and ane on her knee; | |
| She was douce, too, and wiselike—and wisdom’s sae cauld: | |
| I would rather ha’e the ither ane than this Bessie Lee! | |
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