Page:Monk and the miller's wife (2).pdf/2

 THE MONK AND  THE  MILLER'S  WIFE.

Now lend your lugs, ye benders fine, Wha ken the benefit o' wine; And you wha laughing scud brown ale, Leave jinks a wee, and hear a tale. An honest miller won'd in Fife, That had a young and wanton wife, Wha sometimes thol'd the parish priest To mak her man a twa-horned beast. He paid right mony visits till her; And to keep in wi' Hab the miller, H' endeavour'd aft to mak him happy, Where'er he kent the ale was nappy. Sic condescension in a pastor Knit Halbert's love to him the faster And by his converse, troth 'tis true, Hab learn'd to preach when he was fou. When equal is the night and day, And Ceres gies the schools the play, A youth, sprung frae a gentle pater, Bred at St Andrew's alma-mater, Ae day gaun hameward, it fell late, And him benighted by the gate: To lye without, pit-mirk did shore him, He couldna see his thumb before him: But, clack—clack—clack, he heard a mill, Whilk led him by the lugs there till To tak the thread of tale alang, This mill to Halbert did belang;