Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/211

This page has been validated.
RIDDLES.
195

J. An’ eäle ’s good stuff to vill en up.

A. An’ horn vor eyes is horn vor light,
  Vrom Goodman’s lantern after night;
  Horn vor the ears is woone to sound
  Vor hunters out wi’ ho’se an’ hound;
  But horn that vo’k do buy to smell o’
  Is hart’s-horn. J. Is it? What d’ye tell o’
  How proud we be, vor ben’t we smart?
  Aye, horn is horn, an’ hart is hart.
  Well here then, Anne, while we be at it,
  ’S a ball vor you if you can bat it.
  On dree-lags, two-lags, by the zide
  O’ vower-lags, woonce did zit wi’ pride,
  When vower-lags, that velt a prick,
  Vrom zix-lags, het two lags a kick.
  An’ two an’ dree-lags vell, all vive,
  Slap down, zome dead an’ zome alive.

A. Teeh! heeh! what have ye now then, Joe,
  At last, to meäke a riddle o’?

J. Your dree-lagg’d stool woone night did bear
  Up you a milkèn wi’ a peair;
  An’ there a zix-lagg’d stout did prick
  Your vow’r-lagg’d cow, an meäke her kick,
  A-hettèn, wi’ a pretty pat,
  Your stool an’ you so flat ’s a mat.
  You scrambled up a little dirty,
  But I do hope it didden hurt ye.

A. You hope, indeed! a likely ceäse,
  Wi’ thik broad grin athirt your feäce.
  You saucy good-vor-nothèn chap,
  I’ll gi’e your grinnèn feäce a slap,
  Your drawlèn tongue can only run
  To turn a body into fun.