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mine again; if they had tell’d me, tuts, or prute no, I laid them o’er my knee, and a com’d crack for crack o’er their hurdies, like a knock beetle on a harn, web, till the red wats stood on their hips; this brought obedience into my house- and banish’d dods and ill nature out of the door; I dang the de’il out o’ them, and dadded them like a wet dish-clout, till they did my bidding; but now the bairns are brought up to spit fire in their mither’s face, and cast dirt at their auld daddies: How can they be good, who never saw a sample of it; or reverence old age, who practised no precepts in their youth? How can they love their parents, who gave them black poision instead of good principles; who shewed them no good example?
Now, after all, when a poor man wants a good wife, let him wale ane that has been lang servant in æ house, well liked by the bairns, and the bairns’ mither; that’s the lass that will make a good wife: For them that dauts the young bairns, will ay be kind to auld fooks an they had them.
Finis.
