SMOKERS' STORIES. 91 



Inseparable associate. Many a merry 

 night did they spend together over their 

 cups of foaming ale or bowls of whisky 

 toddy, and on some of those occasions 

 Burns composed several of his best con- 

 vivial songs. The bard and the innkeeper 

 became so attached to each other that, 

 as a token of regard, Burns gave Bacon 

 his snuff-box, which for many years had 

 been his pocket companion. 



The knowledge of this gift was con- 

 fined to a few of their jovial brethren. 

 But after Bacon's death, in 1825, when 

 his household furniture was sold by 

 public auction, this snuff-box was offered 

 among other trifles, and someone in the 

 crowd at once bid a shilling for it. 

 There was a general exclamation that it 

 was not worth twopence, and the auc- 

 tioneer seemed about to knock it down. 

 He first looked, however, at the lid, and 

 then read in a tremendous voice the fol- 

 lowing inscription upon it : " Robert 

 Burns, officer of the Excise." Scarcely 



