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HENRY BLYTH's Contract.
WELL, Maistris, fan I'm come out o' Dundee, I coud get nathing to gi' the horse draff in, at the skull: your women ay tak's his trough to keep sand in for scouring their fushicads i' the bink; well I wat he's a good beast, God bless him, that I dinna' forspeak him, and is as well forquainted wi' me, as if I had been seven year's in's company. In troth, Maistris, folk has ay need to deflect fat they are doing; for the day as I'm comin alangs the cassaway o' Dundee, the laird's brother, that cam here, cry'd me up and ga' me a bicker, and comin out I fell down the stair, an' maist brook my neck, bat be a providence I saved the barm. And you ken maistris, fan I'm ridin down by the Pow upo' Maistris Fushicad, she an I crakin together, an I no mindin fat she's sayin, tines my pisle, and gaes foret till I'm about a mile an a bittokie fra't; an minds, says I, good faith maistris, I've tint my pisle, and maun gae back for't again. Hout you're a fool cushie, let it gang there, it was nae meikle worth. Was nae meikle worth, cothie, faul maistris, it was as good a pisle as e'er was in a poor beast, an I wadnae geed for my halyears fee yet, sae I gaed my wa's back, and gat it just far I fand it.
Now maistris, as you was sayin, I'll gi' you a prescriptification o' my life. First, fan I cam to the warld, as soon's I grew a body, my father was dissolved to set me to the school to learn to dispel, and a chapman coming by, he bought me the Chief End of Man, and a Prognostication; but I bein contravenable ran awa' and ged to the wast-mill, an helped the millar: for he greed with the auld lady to uphad a' the gaun gear and she furnish'd him wi' a woman, an gat the o'ercome to hersell: sae this way I misglekit a' my learniment. Well, fan I was but a haflang lad, I began to think how I shou'd come thro'
