Page:Exploits of wise Willie and witty Eppie, the ale-wife, of Buckhaven (2).pdf/16



16                   Wise Willie. Now, sir, an' you master elders, ye                   maunna put them on the black creepy till they be                    married, they've suffered enough at ae time. A-weel, a-weel, said they, but they must marry very soon. I true, says Sandy, ye'll be wanting mair clink; foul hae't ye do for naething here. Hame comes Sandy, starving o' hun- ger, ye might have casten a knot on his lang guts. His mither was baking pease bannocks, up he gets a lump of her laven into his mouth. Auld thief be in your haggies-bag, Sandy, says his mither, Kirk-fouk are ay greedy; ye hae been wi' the Minister a day, ye'd get a guid lang grace, he might a gien ye meat too: filthy dog that thou is, thou haes the bulk o' a little pie o' my leaven in your guts; it wad a faird ane's dinner, sae wad it                   e'en, but an ye keep a reekin' house an                    a roaking cradle three eleven years, as I                    hae done, less o' that will serve you yet, bagging beast itn is, mair it I bore thee now, a hear ye that my dow. The next exploit was an action at law, against the good-man of Muiredge, a                   farmer who lived near by, that kept sheep and swine. His sheep came down and broke their yards, and ate up their kail; the wild hares they thought belonged to                   the same man, as they ran to his house