Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/117

Rh No; not vor me, I fear. An’ if there should, Why ’twoulden be so handy as ’tis now; Vor ’tis the common that do do me good, The run for my vew geese, or vor my cow.

Ees, that’s the job; why ’tis a handy thing To have a bit o’ common, I do know, To put a little cow upon in Spring, The while woone’s bit ov orcha’d grass do grow.

Aye, that’s the thing, you zee. Now I do mow My bit o’ grass, an’ meäke a little rick; An’ in the zummer, while do grow, My cow do run in common vor to pick A bleäde or two o’ grass, if she can vind em, Vor tother cattle don’t leäve much behind em. Zoo in the evenèn, we do put a lock O’ nice fresh grass avore the wicket; An’ she do come at vive or zix o’clock, As constant as the zun, to pick it. An’ then, bezides the cow, why we do let Our geese run out among the emmet hills; An’ then when we do pluck em, we do get Vor zeäle zome veathers an’ zome quills; An’ in the winter we do fat em well, An’ car em to the market vor to zell To gentlevo’ks, vor we don’t oft avvword To put a goose a-top ov ouer bwoard; But we do get our feäst,—vor we be eäble To clap the giblets up a-top o’ teäble.

An’ I don’t know o’ many better things, Than geese’s heads and gizzards, lags an’ wings.