15
Then catching A––w by the lugs,
First face and features traces,
Then fondly his dear darling huggs,
In his rude rough embraces—
Now Humphy G———, your name is cried,
Ye’re noted down a true ane;—
As good a hand as ever tried
The twisting or the screwin’;
Tho’ ye, amang the Vulture breed,
Were never reckon’d ponderous;
Yet, like the Sparrow-Hawk, your greed
An’ cunning has been wonderous,
For ay the Fleecing-Sheers ye plied
Wi’ activeness and keenness,
And gart them bear upon the hide,
Whiles deeper than the skin is:
But yonder stands your just account,
O’ broad and lengthened pages,
O’ which ye’ll get the full amount
O’ your weel earned wages.
Then hearing, as he thought, his praise,
Nae langer douhtfu’ saunter’d,
But just (to use a sodger’s phrase)
Right shoulders forward enter’d.
