Page:Studies in Lowland Scots - Colville - 1909.djvu/209

Rh seems to be almost world wide. We all know the Benjamin of the family hand, Wee Willie Winkie, and the little Piggie-Wiggie that cried all the way home. The Boer Tante amuses the wee kerel on the stoep with tales of "Pinkie," the little finger. I suppose there are still kindly mothers of the old-fashioned sort, who, baby on knee and ready for By-by! take the warm little tootsies, one in each hand, and make them go through a wondrous pantomime from dainty, coralline tips to rosy heel, to the jingling rhymes, lips parted, and heaven-lit eyes aglow: "John Smith, a falla fine, can ee shoe thiss hoarss o' mine? (In largo measure.) Yiss, indeed, an' thaat a' caan, juist as weel as ony maan (larghetto). Pitt a bit upoan the tae, te garr the pownie speel the brae (andante). Pitt a bit upoan the heel to garr the pownie pace weel (allegretto), pace weel, pace weel (allegro), with lively upsie-daesies!)" The folklore of school time is another wide and interesting theme. At St. Bees School the master was familiarly known as Nicks, which Dr. Prevost bases on the expression to keep nicks, to keep account or tally by nicks or notches, natural enough among shepherds who counted by scores on the crook. Keep in the sense of to mind, mend, look after, was very common long ago. Sir John Foulis, in his "Ravelstoun Diary," has now and again the item "for keeping my watch." "Boys keep nicks," continues Dr. Prevost, "when watching the schoolmaster, and 'nicks' is equivalent to 'cave':" "While anudder kept nicks, watching up an' doon street." The term is extended to the corporation schoolmaster, the policeman: "Twelve nixes manhannl'd by yah man," seems a ridiculously easy victory for the hooligan. To be nicked, i.e. caught, or hit, was a common expression during the war. It may even be implied in "Auld Nick," the catch-poll of souls. A good tuck-in is as dear to the schoolboy as a lively shindy. Hence it is natural to note: "'Mint-cake,' a sweetmeat, made by boiling down soft brown sugar and water until a firm but 'short' mass was formed, strongly flavoured with peppermint, in shape two inches square and a half thick; somewhat resembling toffy, but not so hard and crystalline; sold at two squares for a halfpenny"—communicated by Miss Armstrong. The luxury of my youth was "clack," known elsewhere as "gundy," and being a messy preparation in much favour with the girls. These were