A Life-long Lament. 279 



" She jokes her joke and cracks her crack 



As spunkie as a growin' flae ; 

 An' there she sits upon my back 



A livin' perpetuity. 

 She hurkles by her ingle side, 

 An' toasts an' tans her wrunkled hide 

 Guid kens how lang she yet may bide 



To ca' for her annuity. 



" I read the tables drawn wi' care 



For an insurance company, 

 Her chance o' life was stated there 



Wi' perfect perspicuity : 

 But tables here or tables there, 

 She's lived ten years beyond her share, 

 An's like to live a dozen mair 



To ca' for her annuity. 



" Last Yule she had a fearfu' hoast 

 I thought a kink might set me free + 



I led her out 'mang snow and frost 

 Wi' constant assiduity ; 



But deil may care, the blast gaed by, 



And missed the auld anatomy 



It just cost me a tooth, forbye 

 Discharging her annuity. 



" Ae day she fell, her arm she brak, 

 A compound fracture as could be 



Nae leech the cure would undertak' 

 Whate'er was the gratuity ; 



It's cured ! she handles't like a flail 



It does as weel in bits as hale 



But I'm a broken ma.n mysel' 

 Wi' her and her annuity. 



" Her broozled flesh and broken banes 



Are weel as flesh an' banes can be ; 

 She beats the taeds that live in stanes 

 An' fatten in vacuity ! 



