[mongrel]
At kirk or market, mill or smiddie, [smithy]
Nae tawted tyke, though e'er sae duddie, [matted cur, ragged]
But he wad stand as glad to see him,
An' stroan'd on stanes an' hillocks wi' him. [lanted]

The tither was a ploughman's collie, [other]
A rhyming, ranting, raving billie; [fellow]
Wha for his friend and comrade had him,
And in his freaks had Luath ca'd him,
After some dog in Highland sang,
Was made lang syne--Lord knows how lang.

He was a gash an' faithfu' tyke, [wise, dog]
As ever lap a sheugh or dyke; [leapt, ditch, wall]
His honest sonsie, bawsent face [pleasant, white-marked]
Aye gat him friends in ilka place, [every]
His breast was white, his tousie back [shaggy]
Weel clad wi' coat o' glossy black:
His gawsie tail, wi' upward curl, [joyous]
Hung o'er his hurdles wi' a swirl. [buttocks]

Nae doubt but they were fain o' ither, [glad]
And unco pack and thick thegither; [intimate]
Wi' social nose whyles snuff'd and snowkit;
Whyles mice and moudieworts they howkit; [moles, dug]
Whyles scour'd awa in lang excursion,
And worried ither in diversion;
Until wi' daffin' weary grown, [merriment]
Upon a knowe they sat them down, [knoll]
And there began a lang digression
About the lords of the creation.

CAESAR

I've aften wonder'd, honest Luath,
What sort o' life poor dogs like you have;
An' when the gentry's life I saw,
What way poor bodies liv'd ava. [at all]
Our Laird gets in his racked rents,
His coals, his kain, and a' his stents; [rent in kind, dues]
He rises when he likes himsel';
His flunkies answer at the bell:
He ca's his coach; he ca's his horse; [calls]
He draws a bonny silken purse
As lang's my tail, where, through the steeks, [stitches]
The yellow-letter'd Geordie keeks. [guinea peeps]
Frae morn to e'en it's nought