Page:History and comical transactions of Lothian Tom (7).pdf/20

 20 Comical Tranfactions of Lothian Torn. without getting any farther intelligence of him. Now after Tom returned to Scotland, he got a wife, and took a little farm near Dalkeith and became a very doufe man for many days, following his old bufinefs, the cowping of horfes and cows, the feeding of veal for flaughter and the like: he went one day to a fair, and bought a fine cow from an old woman, but Tom judged by the low- nefs of the price, that the cow certainly had fome fault: Tom gives the wife the other hearty bicker of ale, then fays he, 'Wife, ‘the money is yours, and the cow is mine, ‘ ye maun tell me ony wee bits of fauts it ‘ die has :‘ ‘ Indeed, quo’ the goodwife, fhe ‘ has nae faut but ane, and if fhe wanted it, ‘ I wad ne’er a parted wi’ her;‘ and what ‘ is that goodwife ?’ faid he, ‘ Indeed,' faid fhe, ‘ the filthy daft beaft fucks ay herfel: ‘ -Aiite,’ fays Tom, ‘ if that be all, I’ll foon ‘ mute her of that.’ ‘ O! can ye do’t,’ faid fhe, ‘ if I had kend what had a don’t, ye ‘ wadna gotten her.’ ' A weel,’ fays Tom, ‘ I’ll tell you what to do, tak the cow's price ‘ I gave you juft now, and tye it hard and ‘ faft in your napkin, and give it to me thro’ ‘ beneath the cow’s wame, and I’ll give you ‘ the napkin over, the cow’s back, and I’ll ‘ lay my life for it, that fhe’il never fuck her- ‘ fel in my aught;’ ‘ I wat weel,’ faid fhe, ‘ I'fe do that an’ there fhou’d be witchcraft ‘ in’t,' fo Tom no fooner got it through be-