And what they ha’ got by the skin o’ their teeth
They sell for their teeth again.
Ay, whether they lose to the naked life,
Or win to their hearts’ desire,
They tell it all to the carline Wife
That nods beside the fire.
[xiii]
]Her hearth is wide to every gust
That gars the dead ash spin—
And tide by tide and ’twixt the tides
Her sons go out and in.