THE BAWBEE BIRLIN'

Oh the time will come, so the old man said,
When the servant slumbers in his maister's bed,
If he's no' ower busy working overtime instead;
Oh for the birlin' o' the bawbee o't.

Chorus:

The bawbee o't, the bawbee o't,
The birlin' o' the bawbee o't;
It's no' for a penny or a shilling or a groat,
But oh for the birlin' o' the bawbee o't.

And the poor will ding when all the young men cry
That the gowd in the tike has ta'en a thin disguise;
There was nae guarantee that whit the master did was wise:
But oh for the birlin' o' the bawbee o't.

And the day will dawn when all the old men see
That the shape and form of ony apple tree
Has mair tae recommend itsel' afore the spirits flee;
And nae for the birlin' o' the bawbee o't.

The words are by Rod Paterson and Michael Marra (MCPS & PRS); the tune is Niel Gow's Farewell To Whisky.   Gordeanna McCulloch recorded this on her 1997 CD In Freenship's Name (Greentrax CDTRAX 123).

To birl a bawbee is to "turn a halfpenny".  Scots has a lot of alternate spellings, so the above is not necessarily what somebody else would come up with.  I'm unclear as to the sense of verse two, line two and verse three, line three; does anybody more familiar with the idiom have any suggestions?

Malcolm