CLOOTIN' MY AULD BREEKS.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3365, 4 October 1879, Page 1

CLOOTIN' MY AULD BREEKS.

When first I cam* to tins strange laun% their ways to me Beemfed queer, An' aft my braid Scotch tongue set a' their lattghin' powers asteer; They roared an' laughed at things I michfc, an' things I maunio toll, An' though I novor saw tlio joke, I reed they saw*t theirsel'. I stoppit in a boardin' hoose wi' nearly forty mail*, Frao England, Ireland, Prance, an* Wa!e% an' quid kons a* frae whore; We'd a' to mend oor workin* claes, but as I coodna' shae, 11 ayo flung by the aiild anes, an' roplaccd I them vrV tho now. I Bat it happened ancc, when I was hainin' a* i that I cood spare, I A hole gaed in my moleskin breoks, an* left my kneo fu' baro; Sac sweart to thole't, I thocht I'd try to patch them np a wee, Of coorse it was the cheapest plan, as far M I cood see. 1 gaod an' bocht a yaird o* dock, got needle, spears, an' thrcid; An* started aff at ancht o'clock, bat camna mncklo speed: I shued it on, an' cut it an, a dizen timos on* » mair, An' or I got it christian-like, my heart was sick an' eair. I needna' tell hoo mony jags my awkward fingers got, Nor yet hoo mony timos I sent thebrseksan* a'to "pot;" Bat as I like to finish richt whatever I begin, I foucht awa' aa weol'a I cood, nntil I gofc them dune. I heard tho nock strike an© o'clock, ere aleep my senses stole, An' in my dreams, I still was sweatin* ower that weary hole. I clean slept in, an' lost my wark, an' swore by skin an'bane, That I wad raither spen' a pound, than cloot my breeks again. Jas. Srarsoif.