Page:History of the Haverel wives, or, The folly of witless women displayed (3).pdf/16

 16       Janet Clinker's Oration.

frae that's to be coupled to them; work, na, na, my bairn mauna 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 ſling their feet when the fidle 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 ſingers are not for hard labour, yet they might alſo paſs on a pinch for a black Sutor's wife, for the ſtitching of white ſeams 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 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