Maureen

Excerpt from Maureen
The curl in the gob of a scolding wife,
The purse in the petticoat he can't fill,
And the nagging tongue that is never still.
"Three things strong and the house is blest:
The table, the fire, and the hand to a guest.
"Three sounds of increase: a lowing cow,
The smithy sparks, the swish of a plow.
"Three are the tokens of goodly dress:
Elegance, comfort, and lastingness.
"Three hands and the world its best will yield
The hand in the smithy, the byre, and the field.
"What's needed is needed right away;
Don't cut the scollops on a windy day.
"The back of my hand to her at the door
Who never adds weight to the poor man's store.
The same to him on his chair all day
That jabbers and gabs with nothing to say.
"To all: Be patient and good and kind,
And leave a name that will live behind."
It was thus he spoke, the Rachary Wor,
A man of substance and goodly store;
And he left his holding, his hearth, and home,
And they buried him deep in the graveyard loam,
They carried him there one Lammastide,
And it's seventeen years past since he died.
Still they pray for him now as they did of yore,
For the soul of the good man Rachary Wor.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.