The Book of Scottish Song/My wife has ta'en the gee
My wife has ta'en the gee.
[First printed in Herd's Collection, 1769. The words have been set to different airs, but the original is to be found in Gow's fifth collection of Reels.]
A friend of mine came here yestreen,
And he would ha'e me down
To drink a bottle of ale wi' him
In the neist burrows town.
But, O! indeed it was. Sir,
Sae far the waur for me;
For lang or e'er that I came hame
My wife had ta'en the gee.
We sat sae late, and drank sae stout,
The truth I'll tell to you,
That ere the middle o' the night,
We were a' roaring fou.
My wife sits at the fire-side,
And the tear blinds aye her e'e,
The ne'er a bed will she gae to,
But sit and tak' the gee.
In the morning soon, when I came down,
The ne'er a word she spake,
But monie a sad and sour look,
And aye her head she'd shake.
My dear, quoth I, what aileth thee,
To look sae sour on me?
I'll never do the like again,
If ye'll ne'er tak' the gee.
When that she heard, she ran, shy flang
Her arms about my neck;
And twenty kisses in a crack,
And, poor wee thing, she grat.
If ye'll ne'er do the like again,
But bide at hame wi' me,
I'll lay my life I'se be the wife
That's never tak' the gee.