Page:Coalman's courtship to the creel-wife's daughter (9).pdf/8



p got Sawny in the morning, and swallowed owre sodded meat flag by flag; and aff he goes to the coals and the courting, lilting and singing like a lavrock in a May morning,-'O to be married, if this hebe [sic] the way

The colliers wonder'd a' to see him sae weel buskit, wi' a pair o wally side auld-fashioned leather breeks o' his father's, an' an auld creeshy hat, mair like a fryin' pan than ony thing else; a lang cravat like a minister, or Bailie Duff at a burial, a clean face and hands, and nae less than a gun-sleev'd linen sark on him, which made his cheeks to shine like a sherney weight; and the colliers swore he was as braw as a horse gaun to a cow's dredgy.

But Sawny came aff wi' his coals, whistling, and whipping up the poor beasts, e'en as outrageous as ony ram at riding time; weel might ony body see there was a storm in Sawny's nose, light where it like, for no sooner had he sell'd his coals, than he left his horse to come hame wi' a nibour callan, and gaed keckin up the Cowgate, and thro' the closses, seeking auld Be go, his guid-mither to be; then in thro' the fish-market where he bought twa lang herrin, an' twa baps, a pair of suter's auld shoon, greased black and made new, to make his feet