The clucking conversation of poultry, the cackling of the hen, and the
replying chuckle of the cock, is represented by the following dialogue:
_Hen._ Cock, cock, I have la-a-a-yed!
_Cock._ Hen, hen, that's well sa-a-a-yed!
_Hen._ Although I have to go barefooted every da-a-y!
_Cock_ (_con spirito_). Sell your eggs, and buy shoes,
Sell your eggs, and buy shoes!
Mr. Chambers, p. 167, has given a very different version of this current
in Scotland. In Galloway, the hen's song is:
The cock gaed to Rome, seeking shoon, seeking shoon,
The cock gaed to Rome, seeking shoon,
And yet I aye gang barefit, barefit!
The following proverb is current in the North of England:
If the cock moult before the hen,
We shall have weather thick and thin;
But if the hen moult before the cock,
We shall have weather hard as a block.