Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/137

Rh Zoo come to-morrow night; an’ mind, Don’t leäve thy fiddle-bag behind; We’ll sheäke a lag, an’ drink a cup O’ eäle, to keep wold Chris’mas up.

zoo you didden come athirt, To have zome fun last night: how wer’t? Vor we’d a-work’d wi’ all our might To scour the iron things up bright, An’ brush’d an’ scrubb’d the house all drough; An’ brought in vor a brand, a plock O’ wood so big’s an uppèn-stock, An’ hung a bough o’ misseltoo, An’ ax’d a merry friend or two. &emsp;To keepèn up o’ Chris’mas.

An’ there wer wold an’ young; an’ Bill, Soon after dark, stalk’d up vrom mill. An’ when he wer a-comèn near, He whissled loud vor me to hear; Then roun’ my head my frock I roll’d, An’ stood in orcha’d like a post, To meäke en think I wer a ghost. But he wer up to’t, an’ did scwold To vind me stannèn in the cwold, &emsp;A keepèn up o’ Chris’mas.

We plaÿ’d at forfeits, an’ we spun The trencher roun’, an’ meäde such fun! An’ had a geäme o’ dree-ceärd loo, An’ then begun to hunt the shoe. An’ all the wold vo’k zittèn near, A-chattèn roun’ the vier pleäce, Did smile in woone another’s feäce,