[waste]
Our whipper-in, wee blastit wonner! [wonder]
Poor worthless elf! it eats a dinner
Better than ony tenant man
His Honour has in a' the lan';
An' what poor cot-folk pit their painch in, [put, paunch]
I own it's past my comprehension.
LUATH
Trowth, Caesar, whyles they're fash'd eneugh; [troubled]
A cottar howkin' in a sheugh, [digging, ditch]
Wi' dirty stanes biggin' a dyke, [building, wall]
Baring a quarry, and sic like; [clearing]
Himsel', a wife, he thus sustains,
A smytrie o' wee duddy weans, [brood, ragged children]
And nought but his han'-darg to keep [hand-labor]
Them right and tight in thack and rape. [thatch, rope]
And when they meet wi' sair disasters, [sore]
Like loss o' health, or want o' masters,
Ye maist wad think, a wee touch langer [almost]
And they maun starve o' cauld and hunger; [must]
But how it comes I never kent yet. [knew]
They're maistly wonderfu' contented;
An' buirdly chiels and clever hizzies [stout lads, girls]
Are bred in sic a way as this is.
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