Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/282

266 Vor to catch at land, Thomas, an’ snatch at land, &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;Now is the plan; Meäke money wherever you can.

The childern wull soon have noo pleäce &emsp;Vor to plaÿ in, an’ if they do grow, They wull have a thin musheroom feäce, &emsp;Wi’ their bodies so sumple as dough. But a man is a-meäde ov a child, &emsp;An’ his limbs do grow worksome by plaÿ; An’ if the young child’s little body’s a-spweil’d, &emsp;Why, the man’s wull the sooner decaÿ. But wealth is wo’th now mwore than health is wo’th; &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;Let it all goo, If’t ’ull bring but a sov’rèn or two.

Vor to breed the young fox or the heäre, &emsp;We can gi’e up whole eäcres o’ ground, But the greens be a-grudg’d, vor to rear &emsp;Our young childern up healthy an’ sound, Why, there woont be a-left the next age &emsp;A green spot where their veet can goo free; An’ the goocoo wull soon be committed to cage &emsp;Vor a trespass in zomebody’s tree. Vor ’tis lockèn up, Thomas, an’ blockèn up, &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;Stranger or brother, Men mussen come nigh woone another.

Woone day I went in at a geäte, &emsp;Wi’ my child, where an echo did sound. An’ the owner come up, an’ did reäte &emsp;Me as if I would car off his ground. But his vield an’ the grass wer-a-let, &emsp;An’ the damage that he could a-took Wer at mwost that the while I did open the geäte &emsp;I did rub roun’ the eye on the hook.