THE STONE-CUTTERS DISEASE. 157 



his employment and certain death. ' So general/ he 

 says, ' is the affection, that few of our Edinburgh stone- 

 cutters pass their fortieth year unscathed, and not one 

 out of every fifty of their number ever reaches his forty- 

 fifth/ 



For the first month or two after his return to 

 Cromarty, he deemed it probable that his illness had 

 gone too far for recovery. ' I still remember/ these 

 are his words, ' the rather pensive than sad feeling with 

 which I used to contemplate, at this time, an early death, 

 and the intense love of nature that drew me, day after 

 day, to the beautiful scenery which surrounds my native 

 town, and which I loved all the more from the conscious- 

 ness that my eyes might so soon close upon it for ever/ 

 It was at this time that he composed the lines ' To 

 Jeanie/ The little girl of five, to whom he addressed 

 them, was his mother's eldest daughter by her second 

 marriage. With that gentleness which ever character- 

 ized him, he made friends with Jeanie, and led her by 

 the hand in his quiet walks. The lines are in the 

 Scottish dialect, of which Miller was never such a master 

 as Burns. They are not distinguished by power or 

 originality, but are interesting as a reflex of his mood at 

 the time, and breathe the closing stanzas especially 

 an unaffected and artless pathos. 



' Though to thee a spring shall rise, 

 An' scenes as fair salute thine eyes ; 

 An' though, through many a cludless day, 

 My winsome Jean shall be heartsome and gay; 

 ,' He wha grasps thy little hand 

 Nae langer at thy side shall stand, 

 Nor o'er the flower-besprinkled brae 

 Lead 'thee the lownest an' the bonniest way. 

 ' Dost thou see yon yard sae green, 

 Spreckled wi' many a mossy stane ? 

 A few short weeks o' pain shall fly, 

 An' asleep in that bed shall thy puir brither lie. 



