Page:Old maid and widow, or, The widow the best wife.pdf/11

When first he came, the hail was driftin’,
An’ sna’-ba’s at his heels were liftin’;
Sair trachled— he was unko fain,
Gin e’en to land at Rashy-glen;
Waes me! he soon fand his mistak’,
Out thro’ the floor she gart him pack;
An’ clashed the door close on his heels,
While he went loiterin’ o’er the fields,
Ay givin’’s pack the tither hitch,
An’ cursin’ Watty’s cankered witch!
The beggars, wanderin’ for their bit,
Upon the green were fley’d to sit;
The blind, the cripple, auld, an’ young,
Were fain to flee her rauckle tongue;
She cursed them for a weirdless crew,
Without an alms to dit their mou’:
An’ ilka ane, as soon’s they kent it,
The Rashy-glen nae mair frequentit,
Now Watty ne’er was narrow-hearted,
But wou’d to want a share imparted;
When he saw Kate sae hard an’ greedy,
As scorn the blind, an scauld the needy,
The blush brunt warm upon his cheek,
But that was a’— he durstna speak;
Till what wi’ ae thing an’ anither,
He tint his spirits a’thegither.