parish in my eye, and this makes it proper I should add a word
of disclamation. In my time there have been two ministers in
that parish. Of the first I have a special reason to speak
well, even had there been any to think ill. The second I have
often met in private and long (in the due phrase) "sat under"
in his church, and neither here nor there have I heard an
unkind or ugly word upon his lips. The preacher of the text
had thus no original in that particular parish; but when I was
a boy, he might have been observed in many others; he was then
(like the schoolmaster) abroad; and by recent advices, it
would seem he has not yet entirely disappeared.


VI - THE SPAEWIFE


O, I wad like to ken - to the beggar-wife says I -
Why chops are guid to brander and nane sae guid to fry.
An' siller, that's sae braw to keep, is brawer still to
gi'e.
- IT'S GEY AN' EASY SPIERIN', says the beggar-wife to me.

O, I wad like to ken - to the beggar-wife says I -
Hoo a' things come to be whaur we find them when we try,
The lasses in their claes an' the fishes in the sea.
- IT'S GEY AN' EASY SPIERIN', says the beggar-wife to me.

O, I wad like to ken - to the beggar-wife says I -
Why lads are a' to sell an' lasses a' to buy;
An' naebody for dacency but barely twa or three