20 ‘Ye’ll wile out six o your best bowmen, Yourself the seventh to be, And, put me one foot frae my pack, My pack ye shall have free.’ 21 He wiled six o his best bowmen, Himself the seventh to be, But [him] frae his pack they couldna get, For all that they could dee. 22 He’s taen his pack into one hand, His broadsword in the other, And he slew five o the best bowmen, And the sixth he has dung over. 23 Then all the rest they gae a shout, As they stood by the tree; Some said they would this merchant head, Some said they’d let him be. 24 But Jock the Leg he then replied, To this I’ll not agree; He is the boldest broadsword-man That ever I fought wi. 25 ‘If ye could wield the bow, the bow As ye can do the brand, I would hae you to good greenwood, To be my master’s man.’ 26 ‘Tho I could wield the bow, the bow As I can do the brand, I would not gang to good greenwood, To join a robber-band.’ 27 ‘O give me some of your fine linen, To cleathe my men and me, And ye’se hae some of my dun deers’ skins, Below yon greenwood-tree.’ 28 ‘Ye’se hae nane o my fine linen, To cleathe your men and thee, And I’ll hae nane o your stown deers’ skins, Below yon greenwood-tree.’ 29 ‘Ye’ll take your pack upon your back, And travel by land or sea; In brough or land, wherever we meet, Good billies we shall be.’ 30 ‘I’ll take my pack upon my back, And go by land or sea; In brough or land, wherever we meet, A rank thief I’ll call thee.’ 283 THE CRAFTY FARMER =a.= ‘The Crafty Farmer,’ Logan, A Pedlar’s Pack, p. 126, from a chap-book of 1796; ‘The Crafty Miller,’ Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1859, p. 208, from a Glasgow stall-copy; a stall-copy, printed by M. Randall, Stirling. =b.= ‘The Yorkshire Farmer,’ Kidson, Traditional Tunes, p. 140, from The Manchester Songster, 1792. =c.= ‘Saddle to Rags,’ Dixon, Ancient Poems, etc., p. 126, Percy Society, vol. xvii., taken down from the recitation of a Yorkshire yeoman in 1845. =d.= ‘The Thief Outwitted,’ Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, XI, 112, 1873, taken down by E. McC., Guernsey, “from the recitation of an old woman now in her eighty-second year, who learnt it in her childhood from her father, a laborer from the neighborhood of Yeovil.” =e.= ‘The Silly Old Man,’ Baring-Gould and Sheppard, Songs and Ballads of the West, 3d ed., No 18, Part I, p. 38, as sung by the Rev. E. Luscombe, a Devonshire man, about 1850 (Part IV, p. xviii). =f.= ‘The Silly Old Man,’ Miss M. H. Mason’s Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs, p. 43, as sung in Devonshire.