The Messiah

What’s this, what’s this ye’re sayin’ tae me—

Young Archibald Robertson’s coming tae tea?

Weel, get oot tha scones and dinna stint on tha relish,

A reckon his hunger’ll be mighty hellish

By the time he arrives

Frae St Ives.

Och, dinna fret, seid tha auld wife o’ Muchtie,

He’ll be comin’ wi’ Hannah an’ Dorothy Huchtie—

And they ne’er let a man gae frae Glasgee tae Rummach

Wi’out making shooer there’s good food in his stomach.

But he arrives

Frae St Ives,

Ye daft auld bat!

     Seid Willie McPhee.

A canna be responsible

For that,

Michty me!

     Replied tha auld wife o’ Muchtie.

Wee Archibald Robertson duly arrived,

His entrance wa’ grandiloquent, a trifle contrived.

What’s it like in St Ives?—they asked him wi’ a leer.

Fair to middlin’—he seid—A cuid murder a beer.