I’ve always seen this one as happening in Ireland, so maybe it’s Celtica. It's night. The cottage is far from any other, for such is the way of things in the country. And in this night an old man wakes, lying beside his wife of many years. And he knows this waking is different, because he can feel it. He can hear it. Before morning, he'll sleep again, and this time he'll never wake.
Bide a While
There's a midnight wind that's blowin'
There's a finger window tappin'
Still you lie there still soft sleepin'
And I know that you'll be weepin'
When you wake and find me missin'
But they're callin' me away
Bide a while my fair-face lassie
Bide a while my pretty bonnie
It's the road and it is in me
And I must be on my way
There's my pack sat in the corner
There's my old stick leanin' by her
And my promise I remember
That I'd leave them there forever
But the wind, it blows its whisper
And it's callin' out my name
Bide a while my fair-face lassie
Bide a while my pretty bonnie
It's the road and it is in me
And I must be on my way
Here's our two that sleep beside ye
And they surely won't forgive me
When they fall and I don't catch 'em
'Cos it's far away I'm walkin'
But that road still calls it callin'
And it's callin' out my name
Bide a while my fair-face lassie
Bide a while my pretty bonnie
It's the road and it is in me
And I must be on my way
And when she woke he'd left her
And his long-cold lips she kissed her
And her babes she gathered to her
And her words she sent to find him
Where his old, tired feet were walking
On that last straight, narrow way
Bide a while my fair-face laddie
Bide a while my pretty mannie
Don't ye walk too far there from me
And I'll find ye one fine day