Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/154

138 &emsp;&emsp;An’ in his shoes he had girt buckles, &emsp;&emsp;An’ breeches button’d round his huckles; &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;An’ he zung wi’ pride, &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;By’s wold meäre’s zide, &emsp;&emsp;“I’m out o’ debt an’ out o’ danger, &emsp;&emsp;An’ I can feäce a friend or stranger; I’ve a vist vor friends, an’ I’ll vind a peäir Vor the vu’st that do meddle wi’ me or my mearemeäre [sic].”

&emsp;&emsp;An’ he would work,—an’ lwoad, an’ shoot, &emsp;&emsp;An’ spur his heaps o’ dung or zoot; &emsp;&emsp;Or car out haÿ, to sar his vew &emsp;&emsp;Milch cows in corners dry an’ lew; &emsp;&emsp;Or dreve a zyve, or work a pick, &emsp;&emsp;To pitch or meäke his little rick; &emsp;&emsp;Or thatch en up wi’ straw or zedge, &emsp;&emsp;Or stop a shard, or gap, in hedge; &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;An’ he work’d an’ flung &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;His eärms, an’ zung &emsp;&emsp;“I’m out o’ debt an’ out o’ danger, &emsp;&emsp;An’ I can feäce a friend or stranger; I’ve a vist vor friends, an’ I’ll vind a peäir Vor the vu’st that do meddle wi’ me or my mearemeäre [sic].”

&emsp;&emsp;An’ when his meäre an’ he’d a-done &emsp;&emsp;Their work, an’ tired ev’ry bwone, &emsp;&emsp;He zot avore the vire, to spend &emsp;&emsp;His evenèn wi’ his wife or friend; &emsp;&emsp;An’ wi’ his lags out-stratch’d vor rest, &emsp;&emsp;An’ woone hand in his wes’coat breast, &emsp;&emsp;While burnèn sticks did hiss an’ crack, &emsp;&emsp;An’ fleämes did bleäzy up the back, &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;There he zung so proud &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;In a bakky cloud, &emsp;&emsp;“I’m out o’ debt an’ out o’ danger, &emsp;&emsp;An’ I can feäce a friend or stranger;