Conscience - Walter Wingate

'Twas a bonnie day – and a day o' dule
The day I plunkit the Sawbath schule!

I wan'ert awa' ayont the knowes,
Where the bluebell blaws and the arnut grows;
The bee on the thistle, the bird on the tree –
A'thing I saw was blithe – but me.

Weary and wae at last I sank
'Mang the gowan beds on the railway bank –
But never a train cam whistlin' by –
And oh ! but a lanely bairn was I.

And I joukit hame frae tree to tree –
For I kent that I was whaur I sudna be,
When I saw the bad men –  the men that play
At cartes and quoits on the Sawbath Day.

But – cunnin' wee cowart – I waitit till
It was time to skail frae the Sawbath schule;
Naebody kent – but I kent mysel' –
And I gaed to my bed in the fear o' hell.

Conscience, thou Justice cauld and stern,
Aften thy sairest word I earn:
But this is a thing I'll ne'er forgie –
It wisna fair wi' a bairn like me.

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Walter Wingate (1865 - 1918) Scotland