Page:Old maid and widow, or, The widow the best wife.pdf/6

Rh A thick an’ strong stob-thackit roof,

That was baith wind an’ water proof;

A lum o’stane at ilka gavel;

The causey tightly laid wi’ gravel;

Twa winnocks in the chaumer placed,

Shewed Watty had baith wealth an’ taste;

The settin’ sun-beams on them glancin’,

Set mony a cummer’s heart a dancin’;

For a’ thing seemed sae snug an’ tight,

’Twad be delight to keep them right.

But Watty was a lad fu’ douse,

An’ thought wha best wad guide the house;

Young giglets had sae much flirtation,

He wished a wife wi’ some discretion!

Kate Murdoch was a clever cummer,

Wha now had seen her fortieth summer,

Her hame frae Watty’s no twa stane-cast,

Close by the road where mony ane past:

Kate keekit aft at Watty’s biggin,

An’ langed to live aneath its riggin.

What could she do?— a maid sae modest!

For Watty wad think her the oddest,

The sairest changed, were she to speak him—

But Katharine fand the way to cleek him.

For twenty years an’ mair bygane,

She’d wearied sair to lie alane;