Page:Exploits of wise Willie and witty Eppie, the ale-wife, of Buckhaven (2).pdf/12



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P A R T II. 1. Now, Wise Willie had a daughter called Rolling Coughing Jenny, because she spake thick, sax words at three times, ha'f sense, ha'f nonsense, as her own re- cords will bear witness. She being wi' child, was delivered of a bonny lassie; and all the wives in the town cried out, Be-go, laddie, it's just like its ain father, Lang Sandy Tason, (or Thomson,) we                       ken be its ease; for Sandy had a great muckle red nose, like a lobster's tae, boxed at the point like a hawk's neb; And Sandy himself said, that it was surely his, or some other body's; but he had used a' his birr at the getting o't, to try his abilities, being the first time e'er he                       was et sic a business before; and when he had done a' that man could do at it, he said it was nonsense; an shame fa, him, but he would rather row his boat round the Bass au' back again, or he'd                       do the like again: for Wise Willy gade wude at the wean, an' said it had mair ill-nature in't, than the auldest wife about the town; for it pissed the bed, and shit the bed, skirl'd like a wild cat, and kept him frae his night's rest; and the auld haggs about the town ca'd him Sandy, the bairn's daddy; and a' the young