Page:Witty and entertaining exploits of wise Willie, and witty Eppie.pdf/6

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explained their wonders; for the ho as like a little kirk, had four window and a gavel door, the wives got leave to flyte their fill, but fighting was prohibited, for Eppie said, up hands was fair play. Their fines were a pint o' ale, and Eppie sald it at a plack the pint. They had neither minister nor magistrate, nor yet a burley-bailey, to brag them wi' his tolbooth. The Lord o' the manor decided all disputable points; and Wise Willie and Witty Eppie were the rulers of the town.

Now Eppie had a daughter, they ca'd Lingle-taild Nancy, because of her feckless growth; her waist was like a twitter, had nae curpen for a creel, being Edinburgh bred, and brough up wi' her Louden aunty, was learned to read and sew; made coarse claiths, and callicoe mancoes; there was nae a scholar in the town but hersel, she read the bible, and the book o' kirk sangs, that was newly