' [Over]
'Weel, weel!' says I, 'a bargain be't;
Come, gies your hand, an' sae we're gree't; [give us, agreed]
We'll ease our shanks an' tak a seat--
Come, gies your news;
This while ye hae been mony a gate, [road]
At mony a house.'
'Ay, ay!' quo' he, an' shook his head,
'It's e'en a lang, lang time indeed
Sin' I began to nick the thread,
An' choke the breath:
Folk maun do something for their bread, [must]
An' sae maun Death.
'Sax thousand years are near-hand fled, [well-nigh]
Sin' I was to the hutching bred; [butchering]
An' mony a scheme in vain's been laid
To stap or scaur me; [stop, scare]
Till ane Hornbook's ta'en up the trade,
An' faith! he'll waur me. [worst]
'Ye ken Jock Hornbook i' the clachan-- [village]
Deil mak his king's-hood in a spleuchan! [second stomach, tobacco pouch]
He's grown sae well acquaint wi' Buchan [(Author of _Domestic Medicine_)]
An' ither chaps,
The weans haud out their fingers laughin', [children]
And pouk my hips.
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