Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/118

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102
POEMS OF RURAL LIFE.

JOHN.

An’ then, when I ha’ nothèn else to do,
Why I can teäke my hook an’ gloves, an’ goo
To cut a lot o’ vuzz and briars
Vor hetèn ovens, or vor lightèn viers.
An’ when the childern be too young to eärn
A penny, they can g’out in zunny weather,
An’ run about, an’ get together
A bag o’ cow-dung vor to burn.

THOMAS.

’Tis handy to live near a common;
But I’ve a-zeed, an’ I’ve a-zaid,
That if a poor man got a bit o’ bread,
They’ll try to teäke it vrom en.
But I wer twold back tother day,
That they be got into a way
O’ lettèn bits o’ groun’ out to the poor.

JOHN.

Well, I do hope ’tis true, I’m sure;
An’ I do hope that they will do it here,
Or I must goo to workhouse, I do fear.

Eclogue.

TWO FARMS IN WOONE.


Robert an’ Thomas.


ROBERT.

You’ll lose your meäster soon, then, I do vind;
He’s gwaïn to leäve his farm, as I do larn,
At Miëlmas; an’ I be zorry vor’n.

What, is he then a little bit behind?