Page:Fugitive Poetry 1600-1878.djvu/455

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
JOHN DAVIDSON.
437
"If you're the maister o' the hoose,
 It's I'm the mistress o't;
An' I ken best what's in the hoose—
 Sae I tell ye it was a rat."

"Weel, weel, guidwife, gae mak' the brose,
 An' ca' it what ye please."
Sae up she rose and made the brose,
 While John sat toastin' his taes.

They suppit, and suppit, and suppit the brose,
 And aye their lips played smack;
They suppit, and suppit, and suppit the brose,
 Till their lugs began to crack.

"Sic fules we were to fa' out, guidwife,
 About a moose."—"A what!
It's a lee ye tell, an' I say again
 It wasna a moose, 'twas a rat."

" Wad ye ca' me a leear to my very face?
 My faith, but ye craw croose!
I tell ye, Tib, I never will bear't—
 'Twas a moose."—"'Twas a rat."—"'Twas a moose!"

Wi' that she struck him ower the pow[1]—
 "Ye dour[2] auld doit,[3] tak' that—
Gae to your bed, ye cankered sumph[4]—
 'Twas a rat."—"'Twas a moose!"—"'Twas a rat!"

She sent the brose-caup at his heels
 As he hirpled[5] ben the hoose;
Yet he shoved out his head as he steekit[6] the d;or,
 And cried, "'Twas a moose, 'twas a moose!"

But when the carle[7] fell asleep,
 She paid him back for that,
And roared into his sleeping lug.[8]
 "'Twas a rat, 'twas a rat, 'twas a rat!"

I am mista'en sair if I think
 It was a beast at a'—
Next mornin', when she swept the floor,
 She found wee Johnnie's ba'!

  1. ↑ Head.
  2. ↑ Stubborn.
  3. ↑ Dolt.
  4. ↑ Ill-natured fool.
  5. ↑ Crippled.
  6. ↑ Shut.
  7. ↑ Man.
  8. ↑ Ear.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.