Macaskill's Wedding
'Tis MacAskill's wedding and what I drank of the dram that has left me at this time heavy and languid. What boots it to complain about what is not there, when there was not in the Glen what would heal me?
When we sat round the supper an ample grace was said and by my soul 'twas a beautiful act of devotion; 'twas there was the cutting and portioning of food, as if it were tangle tips in heaps.
There was butter and cheese, potatoes and fish being served by women with liberal hand; there were lads and carles fighting and grappling, and chewing the bones under their back teeth.
We drank the health of King George the Third, of every family that was esteemed and cherished, and of every person of position in Alba, whom I will not name just now, Clanranald and the noble Douglas.
When the company gathered and the ball began, there was many a lofty head being bared; every one, as he could, outshining the rest, and dancing on the tips of his toes.
Every one who was at the wedding dancing neatly, setting in the double reel, and shouting, " Hurray, praise the deed, as long as the pipes and the floor last us. "
When I reached home, heavy and languid and weary, my own wife began to nag at me — " What kept thee so long in the Glen, when thou didst tarry there to shame me? "
" Be quiet! thou bad wife, have a care for thy food, away with thy cold sense from me and do not weary me; in Coire na h-Eitigh I slept my fill — that is thy bold fellow's journey, and I have it paid. "
" Coire na h-Eitigh, that were a worthless corrie, that has left thee now pining for it; and 'twere not so bad if the people did not hear of it and spread it all over the countryside.
" They will say that 'twas drunk the grey-headed one was ...; and thou hast no cause of complaint unless they hear of it in the presbytery and put thee under penance and fine. "
When we sat round the supper an ample grace was said and by my soul 'twas a beautiful act of devotion; 'twas there was the cutting and portioning of food, as if it were tangle tips in heaps.
There was butter and cheese, potatoes and fish being served by women with liberal hand; there were lads and carles fighting and grappling, and chewing the bones under their back teeth.
We drank the health of King George the Third, of every family that was esteemed and cherished, and of every person of position in Alba, whom I will not name just now, Clanranald and the noble Douglas.
When the company gathered and the ball began, there was many a lofty head being bared; every one, as he could, outshining the rest, and dancing on the tips of his toes.
Every one who was at the wedding dancing neatly, setting in the double reel, and shouting, " Hurray, praise the deed, as long as the pipes and the floor last us. "
When I reached home, heavy and languid and weary, my own wife began to nag at me — " What kept thee so long in the Glen, when thou didst tarry there to shame me? "
" Be quiet! thou bad wife, have a care for thy food, away with thy cold sense from me and do not weary me; in Coire na h-Eitigh I slept my fill — that is thy bold fellow's journey, and I have it paid. "
" Coire na h-Eitigh, that were a worthless corrie, that has left thee now pining for it; and 'twere not so bad if the people did not hear of it and spread it all over the countryside.
" They will say that 'twas drunk the grey-headed one was ...; and thou hast no cause of complaint unless they hear of it in the presbytery and put thee under penance and fine. "
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