scrattle

To scratch.

But if I'm duly sensible of this, And if I really fear to do amiss, How, George, how (in the name of wonder!) then, Dares my poor, puny, scurvy, scrattling pen Presume thy neat performances to trace, And, with mean words, thy beauteous works debase

To make shift, to manage to get along.

My husband says “What's the good of scrattling and saving, Edna, when in two–three years we might all be blown up by an atom bomb?

To scuttle.