The House Leek

Author: John Stevenson

Date: 1993

Source: Ullans: The Magazine for Ulster-Scots: Nummer 1 Spring 1993

A wheen o’ wee cabbage sat down on my roof,

A wheen o’ wee cabbage sae hearty,

And said, when to pu’ them I stretch’d out my loof,

“Ye cudn’t now, Mr McCarty,

Ye wudn’t now, Mr. McCarty.”

“I don’t want my roof to get bad and decay,

So git out,” says I to the party;

But the mother leek cried, as I shov’d them away,

“Ye cudn’t now, Mr McCarty,

Ye wudn’t now, Mr. McCarty.”

She pu’d to the front a young slip o’ a leek,

The fattest wee brat o’ the party.

“Cud you bear to see tears on his innocent cheek?

Ye cudn’t now, Mr McCarty,

“Ye wudn’t now, Mr. McCarty.

“ ’Tis us that King David exalts in his Psalms—

Aye fat, and sappy, and hearty;

Ye wudn’t evict a puir wife and her lambs?

Ye cudn’t now, Mr McCarty,

Ye wudn’t now, Mr. McCarty.

“King Solomon wrote o’ the plants on the wall;

He, the joodishus ould party;

And you, who’re as wise, wudn’t hurt us at all:

Ye cudn’t now, Mr McCarty,

Ye wudn’t now, Mr. McCarty.”

And so, wi’ her blarney, she’s settled the case;

And says, when I threaten her party;

“Ye needn’t luk cross, for I know by your face,

Ye cudn’t now, Mr McCarty,

Ye wudn’t now, Mr. McCarty.”

From Pat M‘Carty, Farmer, of Antrim, His Rhymes, by John Stevenson, 1903.

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