"Fair play, he car'd na deils a boddle”...

comrades thirsty

set out homeward

WHEN chapman billies leave the street, merchant
And drouthy neibors, neibors meet;
As market days are wearing late,
An' folk begin to tak the gate;
While we sit bowsing at the nappy,
An' getting fou and unco happy,
We think na on the lang Scots miles,
The mosses, waters, slaps, and styles,
That lie between us and our hame,
Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,.
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

This truth fand honest TAM O' SHANTER,,
As he frae Ayr ae night did canter:
(Auld Ayr, whom ne'er a town surpasses,
For honest men and bonie lasses)..

ale

gaps

O Tam! had'st thou but been sae wise,

As taen thy ain wife Kate's advice! worthless
She tauld thee weel thou was a skellum, fellow
A bletherin, blusterin, drunken blellum; windbag
That frae November till October,

Ae market-day thou was na sober;
That ilka melder wi' the Miller,
Thou sat as lang as thou had siller;
That ev'ry naig was ca'd a shoe on
The Smith and thee gat roarin fou on;
That at the L-d's house, ev'n on Sunday,
Thou drank wi' Kirkton * Jean till Monday.
She prophesied, that, late or soon,

Thou wad be found, deep drown'd in Doon,
Or catch'd wi' warlocks in the mirk,
By Alloway's auld, haunted kirk.

grist

dark

Ah, gentle dames! it gars me greet, makes
To think how mony counsels sweet,
How mony lengthen'd, sage advices,

weep

The husband frae the wife despises !

But to our tale :-Ae market night,

Tam had got planted unco right,
Fast by an ingle, bleezing finely,

fire-side

ale shoemaker

Wi' reaming swats, that drank divinely; frothing
And at his elbow, Souter Johnie,
His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony ;
Tam lo'ed him like a very brither;
They had been fou for weeks thegither.

The night drave on wi' sangs an' clatter:
And ay the ale was growing better:
The Landlady and Tam grew gracious,
Wi' favors secret, sweet and precious:

Any little village where a parish church is erected is called "the Kirkton."