Broadside ballads entitled 'The Muckle Meal Pock' and 'Irish Molly, O'.

Transcription

THE

MUCKLE MEAL POCK.

I am a turdy beggar loon, weel kent the country through,
I have a crape for ilka corn, be it tates, meal, or oou,
A laugh for the lasses, tell the news, crack, or joke,
And that lets them ken o' my muckle meal pock.

You may think there is meal i'nt, but that you are far wrang
For I have cakes in't, and scones in't, and for cheses a

dainty whang,

And whiles a bit tobacco, if I want a chew or smoke,
And I hid a' my fallings in my muckle meal pock.

But you maun keep your thumb upon't, it's a secret I'm

gaun to tell,

Away down in the bottom o't, I keep a wee bit still,
The famers' wives they hae a drouth as weel as ither folk,
There's aye a wheel within a wheel in my muckle meal pock

I tak' the bits o' errands when I danner to the toun,
Lasses' parasols to mend, and whiles a pair o' shoon,
A handle o' a parritch pat, a pendulum for a clock,
And they a' find a place in my muckle meal pock.

I tak' eggs by the dozen, to the clachan or the toun,

I niffer them for pocks o' tea, and sugar, white and brown,

And whiles as many buns and baps as a baker's shop could

stock,
And they are a' stowed away in my muckle meal pock.

As lang as the loads pay me weel, I carna a prean

Be it bambes ceps. 'lates graps, or lasses crinolines,

what do you think a farmer said ? of course it was in joke,

Bring me up a rake 'o' coals in your muckle meal pock.

But you'll hear how I fared with my grasping and my greed,
[ ] e'e, mair than the stomach, it was aye waur to feed,   
I cram'd it, and squeez'd it, till it was like to choke,
was scarcely fit to whaughle with my muckle meal pock.

When I cam' to the ford where you cross the stapping stances
I hitched it on my shouthers to rest my weary banes,
The string round the mouth, with the weight within it,

broke,
And out fell the harns o' my muckle meal pock.

I have laid away my meal pock, ance dear to my heart,
I hae gotten instead a cuddy and a cart,
I am a cadger and a carrier, and I rank wi' decent folk,
and a gentleman compared to the owner of a pock.         

PRICE   ONE

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