Page:History of the Haverel wives, or, The folly of witless women displayed (2).pdf/16

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frae that's to be coupled to then; work, na, na, my bairn maunna work, she's to be a lady, they ca' her Miss; I maun hae her lugs bor'd, says auld Mumps the mither; thus the poor pet is brought up like a mitherless lamb, or a parrot in a cage; they learn naething but prick and sew, and fling their feet when the fiddle plays, so they become a parcel of yellow-faced female taylors, unequal matches for country-men, Flanders-babbies, brought up in a box, and must be carried in a basket? knows nothing but pinching poverty, hunger and pride; can neither milk kye, muck a byre, card, spin, nor yet keep a cow from a corn-rigg; the most of such are as blind penny-worths, as buying pigs in pocks, and ought only to be matched with Tacket-makers, Tree-trimmers, and Male- taylors, that they may be male and female, agreeable in trade, since their piper-fac'd fingers are not for heard labour; yet they might also pass on a pinch for a black Sutor's wife, for the stitching of white scams round the mouth of a lady's shoe; or, with Barbers or Bakers they might be buckled, because of their muslin-mouth and pinch-beck speeches, when barm is scant, they can blow up their bread with fair wind, and when the razor is rough, can trim their chafts with a fair tale, oil their peruke with their white lips, and powder the beau's pow with a French-puff; they are all versed in all the science of flattery, musical-tunes, horn-pipes, and