Winter: Keepen Up O’ Chris’mas
An’ zoo you didden come athirt,
To have zome fun last night: how wer’t?
Vor we’d a-work’d wi’ all our might
To scour the iron things up bright,
An’ brush’d an’ scrubb’d the house all drough;
An’ brought in vor a brand, a plock
O’ wood so big’s an uppen-stock,
An’ hung a bough o’ misseltoo,
An’ ax’d a merry friend or two,
To keepen up o’ Chris’mas.
An’ there wer wold an’ young; an’ Bill,
Soon after dark, stalk’d up vrom mill.
An’ when he wer a-comen near,
He whissled loud vor me to hear;
Then roun’ my head my frock I roll’d,
An’ stood in orcha’d like a post,
To meaeke en think I wer a ghost.
But he wer up to’t, an’ did scwold
To vind me stannen in the cwold,
A keepen up o’ Chris’mas.
We play’d at forfeits, an’ we spun
The trencher roun’, an’ meaede such fun!
An’ had a geaeme o’ dree-ceaerd loo,
An’ then begun to hunt the shoe.
An’ all the wold vo’k zitten near,
A-chatten roun’ the vier pleaece,
Did smile in woone another’s feaece.
An’ sheaeke right hands wi’ hearty cheer,
An’ let their left hands spill their beer,
A keepen up o’ Chris’mas.
Other works by William Barnes...
