'My bairn! my bairn!' cried the distracted father, 'where can he be?' A dozen mouths were opened to communicate hopes which no one felt.
The children, or "bairns," as they were called here, wore neither shoes nor stockings, except a few of the very young ones, and all the arable land was devoted to the culture of oats and turnips.
The only thing I grudge is being away all day, leaving you and the bairns, for I ken they're no' very easy to put up with.
Thousands of old men and wives and bairns are starving and their breadwinners can get neither unemployment pay nor outdoor relief.
Those are the most important years in a bairn's life.
The bairns of the unemployed will now have to be satisfied with fewer sweets.
