outgane

Updated: May 15, 2025

Instead of saying, as they had done before, that "Nelly wud mak a guid wife to Jock 'at she wud," they now said, that "Jock, wha was scarcely outgane nineteen, was owre young ever to think o' marryin an auld hizzie o' three-and-thirty like her;" that "the carryin o' the water, and the darnin o' the stockins, wud a' end in naething;" that "Jock wud be far better without her;" and when they recollected the implied malediction of the witch, they considered that it was as impossible for her to be his wife, as it is for potatoes to grow above ground; and concluded the discussion with a pious wish "that she micht aye be keepit in the richt road."

Alexander Bethune - Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland: Volume 11