Page:Folly of witless women displayed, or, A comical dialogue between Maggy and Janet.pdf/4

(4) brownies and fairies dwal; and then we gat anither sort o gospel fouk they cad curits, a fine sort o daind honest bodies they war, but gay and greedy: tha didna like sculdery wark, but said na meikleagainst for a hantle bits o callens wad a gotten twa or thr bastards before they gat breeks; they but ta hae the titles of every thing that grew; mony a time my father wisht they wad tak the tithe o his hemp, if it we to hang them. They were aye warst whare a poman died, tho' he left weans fatherless; a deed the wad sent their bellman, and wi his lang fingers harled the upper pair of blankets aff the bed, for some rent they gard fouks pay for dying; and yet the keepet a hantle braw halydays, when we gat on wames sou o fat brose, and suppit yule sowens till od sarks had been like to rive; and after that, cate! roasted cheese and white puddins, weel spiced. O times for the guts! weel I wat ony body might line than, that had ony thing to live on.

Mag. But dear Janet, sere braw and lang o til memory, do ye mind o the waefu blast, when the for thief was raging in the air, and the deil dang down a the kail-yard dykes, cutted the corn stacks, tirr'd the houses, and blew giddy Willy's wig in the wall? the said some young minister had raised the deil, and and want o a cat, or some unkirfen'd creature to gi him they coudna get him laid again, an he brake the bridle, slipped his head, and ran awa frae them.

Jan. Deed woman I heard tell o that; and how Willy M'Neal met him on the staps in the mids the water, and shot him o'er, and thought to drown him, but he he gade down the water like a meikle bill roaring. But I mind the first time the de came to this kintry was on a Sunday; I was a we bit gaun lassie; my father was at the kirk; there wa twa o them, a hummel'd are and a horn'd ane,