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John came to man's state to the age of twenty-one years, he tell'd his mither he wou'd hae a wife of some sort either young or auld, widow or lass, if they had but head, hips, tongue and tail, he should tak them, and weel I wat mither quoth he they'll get a lumping penny worth o' me, take me wha' will.
His mither tells him o' the black butcher on Ti'ot side, who had three dochters, and every one o' them had something, there was Kate, Ann, and Grizy, had a hundred merks the piece; Kate and Ann had both bastards, Grizy, the eldest, had a hump-back, high-breast, baker-legged, a short wry neck, thrawn mouth, and goggle ey'd, a perfect Æsop of the female kind, with as many crooked conditions within as without, a very lump of loun-like ill nature, row'd a' together as if she had been nine months in a haggies, a second edition of crooked Richard an old English king, that was born wi' teeth to bite a' round about him, and yet the wight gaed mad to be married.
John's mother tell'd him the road where to go, and what to say, and accordingly he sets out wi' his Sunday's coat on and a his braws, and a pair o' new pillonian breeks o' his
