Page:Coalman's courtship to a creelwife's daughter (1).pdf/11

 some: How is a' at hame? Is Kate and the laddie well?

Mat. Fu' well, my dow, you're a bra' foncy dog grown, a wally fa' me gin I kend ye.

Come, come, co' Sawny, an' I'll gi'e ye a nossock to heat your wame, it's a cauld day, an' ye're my mither's countryman.

Na, fair fa' you, Sawny, I'll no refus't; a dram's better the day nor a clap on the arse wi' a cauld ; sae fallow me my dow.

So away she took me, co' Sawny, down a dark stair, to ane o' the now houses, beneath the yird, where it was as mirk as in a coal heugh, an' they had a great fire. Sweet be wi' me, co' Sawny, for it minds me o' the ill part! There was a muckle pot on the fire, like a little caldron, seething kail and flesh: The goodwife forket them out in cogs and caps; for there came in a whin sutor-like fallows, wi' black thumbs and creashy aprons, that cuttied them a up in a wie time; but they ne'er fa'd wi' us, nor we wi' them: We got first a an' than a het pint.

A vow, said I, Mary is na Kate gawn to get a man yet? A man, laddie, a wha wad ha'e her? a muckle lazy-useless jade, can do naething but work at husband wark, card and spin, wash ladies rooms, and scour gentry's bonny-things; she canna take a creel