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An' hunger'd maukin taen her way

To kail-yards green,

While faithless snaws ilk step betray

Whare she has been.

* Duan, a term of Ossian's for the different divisions of a degressive poem. See his Cath-Loda, vol. 2. of M'Pherson's Translation.

E

The Thresher's weary flingin-tree The lee-lang day had tired me;

And whan the Day had clos'd his e'e,

Far i' the West,

Ben i' the Spence, right pensivelie,

I gaed to rest.

There, lanely, by the ingle-cheek, I sat and ey'd the spewing reek,

That fill'd, wi' hoast-provoking smeek,

The auld, clay biggin;

An' heard the restless rattons squeak

About the riggin.

All in this mottie, misty clime,
I backward mus'd on wasted time,
How I had spent my youthfu' prime,

An' done nae-thing,

But stringin blethers up in rhyme,

For fools to sing.

Had I to guid advice but harkit, I might, by this, hae led a market, Or strutted in a Bank an' clarkit

My cash-account;

While here, half-mad, half-fed, half-sarkit,
Is a' th' amount.

I started, mutt'ring, blockhead! coof!
And heav'd on high my waukit loof,
To swear by a' yon starry roof,

Or some rash aith,

That I, henceforth, would be rhyme-proof

Till my last breath

When click! the string the snick did draw :

And jee! the door gaed to the wa';

And by my ingle-lowe I saw,

Now bleezin bright,

Come full in sight.

A tight, outlandish Hizzie, braw,

Ye need na doubt, I held my whisht; The infant aith, half form'd, was crusht; I glowr'd as eerie 's I'd been dusht

In some wild glen;

When sweet, like modest Worth, she blusht,

And stepped ben.

Green, slender, leaf-clad Holly-boughs, Were twisted, gracefu', round her brows,

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