5
Now, Wise Willy and Witty Eppie the ale wife, lived there about a hundred years ago; Eppie's chamber was their College and Court-house, where they decided contoversies, and explained their wonders, for the house was like a little kirk, had four windows and a gable door; the wives got leave to flyte their fill but fighting was prohibited as Eppie said, 'Up-hands was foul play.' Their fines was a pint o' ale, and Eppie sold it at a plack the pint. They had neither minister nor magistrate, nor a burley-bailie, to brag them wi' his tolbooth. The Lord of the Manor decided all disputable points, and Wise willie and Witty Eppie, the ale wife were the rulers of the town.
Now, Eppie had a daughter, she called her Lingle-tail'd Nancy, because of her feckless growth; her waist was like a twitter, had nae curpen for a creel, being Edinburgh bred, and brought up wi' her Loudin aunty, was learned to read and sew, made ⟨coarse⟩ claes, and callicoe mancoes, there was nae a scholar in the town but hersel, the read the bible, and the book of kirk sangs was newly come in fashion. Willy and Eppie told them ay what it meant, and said a' the letters in it was litted by my Lord, for they saw him hae a feather that he dipped in black water, and made crooked scores, just like the same, and then he spoke o'er again, and it told him what to say.
