CHARACTERS. 



325 



did not I; my indignation yet boils 



at the recollection of the f 1 



factor's insolent threatening let- 

 ters, which used to set us all in 

 tears. 



This kind of life — the cheerless 

 gloora of a hermit, with the un- 

 ceasing moil of a gallev slave — 

 brought me to my sixteenth year ; a 

 little before which period I first 

 committed the sin of rhyme. You 

 know our country customs of coup- 

 ling a man and woman together as 

 partners in the labours of harvest. 

 In my sixteenth autumn, my part- 

 ner was a bewitching creature, a 

 year younger than myself. My 

 scarcity of English denies me the 

 power of doing her justice in that 

 language, but you know the Scottish 

 idiom; she was a bonnie; sweet, 

 sonsie lass. In short, she altogether 

 unwittingly to herself initiated me 

 in that delicious passion, which, in 

 spite of acid disappointment, gin- 

 horn prudence, and book-worm phi- 

 losophy, I hold to be the first of hu- 

 man joys, our dearest blessing here 

 below! How she caught tlie con- 

 tagion I cannot tell ; yet medical 

 people talk much of infection from 

 breathing the same air, the touch, 

 &c. but I never expressly said I 

 loved her. Indeed I did not know 

 myself why I liked so much to loiter 

 behind with her, when returnin<iin 

 the evening from our labours; why 

 the tones of her voice made my 

 heart-strings thrill like an JEoVmn 

 harp ; and particularly why my 

 pulse beat such a furiousratan when 

 I looked and fingered over her little 

 hand to pick out the cruel nettle 

 stings and thistles. Among her 

 other 'love-inspiring qualities, she 

 sung sweetly; and it was her fa- 

 vourite reel to which I attempted 

 giving an embodied vehicle in 



rhvme. I was not so presumptuous 

 as to imagine that I could make 

 verses like printed ones, composed 

 by men who had Greek and Latin ; 

 but my girl sung a song which was 

 said to be composed by a small coun- 

 try laird's son, on one of his father's 

 maids, with whom he was in love ; 

 and I saw no reason why I might 

 not rhyme as well as he; for, ex- 

 cepting that he could smear sheep, 

 and cast peats, his father living in 

 the moorlands, he had no more 

 scholar-craft than myself. 



Thus widi me began love and 

 poetry; which at times have been 

 my only, and, till within the last 

 twelve months, have been my high- 

 est enjoyment. My father struggled 

 on till he reached the freedom in his 

 lease, when he entered on a larger 

 farm, about ten miles farther in the 

 country. The nature of the bargain 

 he made, was such as to throw a 

 little ready money into his hands at 

 the commencement of his lease, 

 otherwise theaffair wouldhav^been 

 impracticable. For four years we 

 lived comfortablv' here; but a dif- 

 ference commencing between him 

 and his landlord as to terms, after 

 three years tossing and whirling in 

 the vortex of litigation, my father 

 was just saved from the horrors of a 

 jail, by a consumption, which, after 

 two years promises, kindly stepped 

 in, and carried him away, to where 

 the wicked cease fnmi troubling 

 and where the weary are at rest! 



It is daring the time we lived on 

 this farm that my little story is most 

 eventful. I was at the beginning 

 of this period, perhaps, the most 

 ungainly auk ward boy in the parish 

 — no suliluire was less acquainted 

 with the ways of the world. What 

 I knew of ancient story wasgathered 

 fiom Salmon's and Guthrie's Geo- 



