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Green Broom (2) 
Green Broom (2)
 There was an auld man, And he lived i the west, His trade was a cutter O broom, green broom.
 He had a lazy boy, And Bob was his name, And he lay in his bed Till noon, till noon.
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 Montgomerie SC (1948), 155 (no. 284), from Angus.
 An English version in Halliwell 1842, 77 (ci). The ballad of which this is the first stanza is in Pills to Purge Melancholy (1720), VI.100, "The Jolly Broom-Man: Or, the unhappy Boy turn'd Thrifty"; traditional copies in e.g. Broadwood, English County Songs [1892], 88; FSJ no. 3 (I.3, 1901), 84, "Green Broom". The story is that the lazy boy is prompted to go and cut broom and finds it very saleable; in the trad. copies he marries a satisfied customer. See also Bruce & Stokoe Northumbrian Minstrelsy (1882), 99, with music; our text approx. = st. 1. 
MS