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[The Kelly burn (i.e., brook) forms the northern boundary of Ayrshire, and the ballad has no connection with Nithsdale or Galloway. Burns derived his material, probably, from an old English blackletter ballad, "The Devil and the Scold."]

I.

THERE lived a carl in Kellyburn Braes (Hey and the rue grows bonie wi' thyme !),

And he had a wife was the plague o' his days

(And the thyme it is wither'd, and rue is in prime !).

II.

Ae day as the carl gaed up the lang glen

(Hey and the rue grows bonie wi' thyme !),

He met wi' the Devil, says: - 'How do you fen?'

(And the thyme it is wither'd, and rue is in prime !).

III.

'I've got a bad wife, sir, that 's a' my complaint

(Hey and the rue grows bonie wi’ thyme !),

For, saving your presence, to her ye 're a saint'

(And the thyme it is wither'd, and rue is in prime !).

IV.

'It's neither your stot nor your staig I shall crave

(Hey and the rue grows bonie wi' thyme !),

'But gie me your wife, man, for her I must have'

(And the thyme it is wither'd, and rue is in prime !).