Page:History of the Haverel wives, or, The folly of witless women displayed (1).pdf/6

6 blaſt, when the foul thief was raging in the air, an the de’il dang down a’ the kail-yard dykes, cutted the corn ſtacks, tirr’d the houſes, and blew giddy Willy’s wig in the wall, they ſaid it was ſome young miniſter it had rais’d the de’il, and for want o’ a cock, a cat, or ſome unkirſen’d creature to gi’e him, they cou’d na’ get him laid again, and he brake the bridle, flipped his head, and ran awa’ frae them.

Jan.) A deed woman I heard tell o’ that and how woud Willie M‘Neel met him on the ſteps in the mids o’ the water, and ſhot him o’er, and thought to drown him, but he gade down the water like a meikle branded bill roaring, a’ burning’ fire; but I hae mind the firſt time it the de’il came to this kintry was on a Sunday, I was a wi’ bit gaun laſſie, my father an a the men fouk was at the kirk, the ware twa o’ them, a hummel’d ane an a horn’d ane, a goodman de’il, and a goodwife de’il as we took them to be, we ran a’ into the houſe, and my mither barr’d the door, and hunted the dogs out at the byre-hole, thinking the de’il wad rin frae the dogs, but, na, na, they got-up on their tae end like twa auld men, they were a’ rugh lang hair like a pyet-horfe, wi’ lang beards aneth their chin, and the meikle horn’d de’il bos’d the dogs in at the hole again, we ran a’ ben the houfe and grat, but our Jock who was a little gabby gaun laddock, cry’d ay, mither, mither, what is the