This song was a favourite of Willie Scott, the Border shepherd and singer, who learned it from his mother. Willie was born in Dumfriesshire in 1897. The song's author, Willie Watt, incidentally, hailed from West Linton in Peebleshire, about 60 miles away over the Lowther Hills as the crow flies. It is also published, fairly close to Malcolm's words above, in Alison McMorland's 1988 collection of Willie Scott's songs called Herd Laddie o the Glen (which has a very interesting introduction by Hamish Henderson.) Hamish and Willie S. were stalwarts of the Newcastleton Folk Festival, where the song was regularly sung - being fairly close to its home ground.) The song was also a favorite at kirns and shepherds' suppers in the eastern Borders at least until the 1960s, when these fine occasions began to dwindle. One footnote to Malcolm's glossary: a cadger also means "an itinerant dealer, especially in fish" - its intended meaning here, I think.