Scotland/Scots > Licht frae the smiddy o' Saunders Dinwuddie

70 THE UPBRINGING OF COMMON SENSE.
women. They can do, forbye, what unco few o’
our young folk can do now-a-days—they can read
their ain auld mither longue. They can write,
too, and that glibly, and pen a letter like a
lernit clerk. They dinna write that fashionable,
crank scribble that young ladies write now ;
but a fine, round, honest, womanly hand o’ write,
that onybody can read as easily as they can read a
print beuk. At castin’ accounts, too, they are
very gleg and clever. I’m gey proud o’ my
dochters, Sir.
“ Why, Saunders, have you not given them all
the advantages of those elegant accomplish¬
ments so common at the present day—such as
French, Italian, German, music, drawing, paint¬
ing, and all the other branches of an ornamental
and highly finished course of education ?”
“What mean ye, Sir? Do ye imagine that
Saunders Dinwuddie an’ his wife Girzie would
bring up a parcel o’hizzies to be prejink, handless,
guid-for-naething young ladies, wha can naether
help themsel’s nor help onybody else ? Ye surely
think we’re a donnart auld couple. What, Sir !
busk our bairns, an’ busk them bonnily, an’
ca’ them to the matrimonial market for sale, that
they may catch gulls, or be gulled themsel’s ?—
No, Sir, never; they dinna sail under fause
colours. Their banner is that o’ honest, virtuous
womanhood. Ye see auld ‘ Gether-away ’ i’
the street there, he is trundlin’ his barrow afore
him, wi’ his goods an’ gear ; he wants customers,
wha bring his wares to his shop, that is a’ the
bairns i’ the street. What has he done to gether
them ? On the front o’ his barrow he has set up