FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147  
148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   >>   >|  
75] black, grim, and large; To gi'e them music was his charge: He screwed the pipes and gart them skirl,[76] Till roof and rafters a' did dirl![77] Coffins stood round, like open presses, That shawed the dead in their last dresses; And by some devilish cantrip[78] slight, Each in its cauld hand held a light, By which heroic Tam was able To note upon the haly table A murderer's banes in gibbet airns;[79] Twa span-lang, wee unchristened bairns; A thief new-cutted frae a rape, Wi' his last gasp his gab[80] did gape; Five tomahawks, wi' bluid red-rusted; Five scimitars wi' murder crusted; A garter which a babe had strangled; A knife a father's throat had mangled, Whom his ain son o' life bereft-- The gray hairs yet stack to the heft: Wi' mair o' horrible and awfu', Which ev'n to name wad be unlawfu'. As Tammie glow'red,[81] amazed and curious, The mirth and fun grew fast and furious: The piper loud and louder blew; The dancers quick and quicker flew; They reeled, they set, they crossed, they cleekit,[82] Till ilka carlin[83] swat and reekit,[84] And coost[85] her duddies[86] to the wark, And linket[87] at it in her sark![88] Now Tam, O Tam! had they been queans A' plump and strapping, in their teens; Their sarks, instead o' creeshie flannen,[89] Been snaw-white seventeen-hunder linen[90], Thir breeks[91] o' mine, my only pair, That ance were plush, o' guid blue hair, I wad hae gi'en them off my hurdies, For ane blink o' the bonnie burdies! But withered beldams old and droll, Rigwoodie[92] hags wad spean[93] a foal, Lowping and flinging on a crummock,[94] I wonder didna turn thy stomach. But Tam kenned what was what fu' brawlie: "There was ae winsome wench and walie,"[95] That night inlisted in the core (Lang after kenned on Carrick shore! For mony a beast to dead she shot, And perished mony a bonnie boat, And shook baith meikle corn and bear,[96] And kept the country-side in fear), Her cutty sark,[97] o' Paisley harn,[98] That while a lassie she had worn, In longitude though sorely scanty, It was her best, and she was vauntie.[99] Ah! little kenned thy reverend grannie, That sark she coft[100] for her wee Nannie, Wi' twa pund Scots ('twas a' her riches), Wad ever graced a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147  
148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

kenned

 

bonnie

 

Lowping

 

crummock

 

flinging

 
Rigwoodie
 

beldams

 

withered

 

burdies

 
creeshie

flannen

 
queans
 

strapping

 

seventeen

 

hunder

 

breeks

 

hurdies

 

sorely

 

longitude

 

scanty


vauntie

 

Paisley

 

lassie

 

riches

 

graced

 

Nannie

 

reverend

 

grannie

 

inlisted

 

winsome


stomach

 
brawlie
 

Carrick

 

country

 

meikle

 
perished
 

crossed

 

murderer

 

gibbet

 

heroic


tomahawks

 

rusted

 

unchristened

 

bairns

 

cutted

 

screwed

 
rafters
 

charge

 

devilish

 

cantrip