9
got quit of his cockolder, and Leper's mother
got her load of meal.
Leper's mother was a careful industrious
wife, but as the bye-word is, 'a working
mother makes a dally daughter,' and so it
happened here, for she had two gleakit sluts
of daughters, that would do nothing but lie
in their bed in the morning, till, as the say-
ing is, 'the sun was like to burn a hole in
their backsides.' The old woman, who was
bleaching some cloth, was very early at
work in the mornings, and Leper's patience
being worn out with the laziness of his two
sisters, he resolved to play a trick on them,
for their reformation, so he goes and gets a
mortcloth, and spread it on the bed above
them, and sends the dead bell through the
town, inviting the people next day at four
o'clock afternoon to the burial of his two
sisters, for they had died suddenly; this
brought all the neighbouring wives in, who
one after another lifted up the mortcloth,
and said, with a sigh, they've gone to their
rest, a sudden call indeed! Their aunt
hearing of this sudden news, came running
in all haste, and coming where the jades'
mither was at work, and was ignorant of the
story, she cries out, Fye upon ye, woman,
fye upon ye! What's the matter, sister,
says she, what's the matter! I think you
might let your wark stand for a'e day, when
