What news? what news? your tidings tell-
Tell me you must and shall-
Say why bareheaded you are come,
Or why you come at all?

Now Gilpin had a pleasant wit,
And loved a timely joke;
And thus unto the calender

In merry guise he spoke :

I came because your horse would come;
And, if I well forebode,qua
My hat and wig will soon be here-
They are upon the road.

The calender, right glad to find
His friend in merry pin,
Returned him not a single word,

But to the house went in.

Whence straight he came with hat and wig

A wig that flowed behind,

A hat not much the worse for wear,
Each comely in its kind.

He held them up, and in his turn
Thus showed his ready wit,
My head is twice as big as yours,
They therefore needs must fit.

But let me scrape the dirt away
That hangs upon your face;
And stop and eat, for well you may
Be in a hungry case.

Said John, It is my wedding day,
And all the world would stare
If wife should dine at Edmonton,
And I should dine at Ware.

So turning to his horse, he said,
I am in haste to dine;

"Twas for your pleasure you came here,

You shall go back for mine.

luckless speech, and bootless boast!

which he paid full dear;

hile he spake, a braying ass

ing most loud and clear;

593

This subject which to you I am to relate,
It is of a 'squire who had a large estate;
And the first dear infant his wife she did bare,
Was a young daughter, a beauty most fair.

He said to his wife, 'Had this but been a boy,
It would please me better, and increase my joy;
If the next be of the same sort, I declare,
Of what I am possessed it shall have no share.'

In twelve months after, this woman, we hear,
Had another daughter, of beauty most clear;
And when her father knew 'twas a female,
In-to a bitter passion he presently fell.

Saying, 'Since this is of the same sort as the first,
In my habitation she shall not be nurs'd;

Pray let it be sent into the country,

For where I am, truly this child shall not be.'

With tears his dear wife unto him did say,
'My dear, be contented, I'll send her away.'
Then into the country this child she did send,
For to be brought up by an intimate friend.

Altho' that her father hated her so,
He good education on her did bestow,
And with a gold locket, and robes of the best,
This slighted young damsel was commonly drest.

But when unto stature this damsel was grown,
And found from her father she had no love shewn,
She cried, 'Before I will lie under his frown,
I am fully resolv'd to range the world round.'

PART II.

But now mark, good people, the cream of the jest,
In what a strange manner this female was drest;
Catskins into a garment she made, I declare,
The which for her clothing she daily did wear:

Her own rich attire, and jewels beside,

They up in a bundle together were ty'd;
And to seek her fortune she wander'd away

And when she had wander'd a cold winter's day,