[Tea-Table Miscellany Contents]
IN winter when the rain rain’d caul’d
And frost and snaw on ilka-hill,
And Boreas, with his blasts sae bauld,
Was threat’ning a’ our ky to kill:
Then Bell my wife, wha loves na strife,
She said to me right hastily,
Get up, goodman, save Cromy’s life,
And tak your auld cloak about ye.
–
My Cromie is an useful cow,
And she is come of a good kyne;
Aft has she wet the bairn’s mou,
And I am laith that she shou’d tyne;
Get up, goodman, it is fou time,
The sun shines in the lift sae hie;
Sloth never made a gracious end,
Go tak your auld cloak about ye.
–
My cloak was anes a good gray cloak,
When it was fitting for my wear;
But now it’s scantly worth a groat,
For I have worn’t this thirty year;
Let’s spend the gear that we have won,
We little ken the day we’ll die:
Then I’ll be proud, since I have sworn
To have a new cloak about me.
–
In days when our king Robert rang,
His trews they cost but haff a crown;
He said they were a groat o’er dear,
And call’d the taylor thief and loun,
He was the king that wore a crown,
And thou the man of laigh degree,
‘Tis pride puts a’ the country down,
Sae tak thy auld cloak about thee.
–
Every land has its ain laugh,
Ilk kind of corn it has its hool,
I think the warld is a’ run wrang,
When ilka wife her man wad rule;
Do ye not see Rob, Jock, and Hab,
As they are girded gallantly,
While I sit hurklen in the ase;
I’ll have a new cloak about me.
–
Goodman I wate ‘tis thirty years,
Since we did ane anither ken;
And we have had between us twa,
Of lads and bonny lasses ten:
Now they are women grown and men,
I wish and pray well may they be;
And if you prove a good husband,
E’en tak your auld cloak about ye.
–
BELL my wife, she loves na strife;
But she wad guide me, if she can,
And to maintain an easy life,
I aft maun yield tho’ I’m goodman:
Nought’s to be won at woman’s hand,
Unless ye give her a’ the plea;
Then I’ll leave aff where I began,
And tak my auld cloak about me.
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