II.

November chill blaws loud wi' angry fugh;

The fhort'ning winter-day is near a close ; The miry beafts retreating frae the pleugh; The black'ning trains o' craws to their repofe: The toil-worn Cotter frae his labor goes, This night his weekly moil is at an end, Collects his fpades, his mattock, and his hoes, Hoping the morn in cafe and reft to spend,

And weary, o'er the moor, his courfe does hameward bend.

III.

At length his lonely Cot appears in view,
Beneath the fhelter of an aged tree;
The expectant wee-things, toddlin ftacher through,
To meet their Dad, wi' flichterin noife and glee,
His wee bit ingle blinkin bonilie,

His clean hearth flane, his thrifty Wife's fmile,
The lifping infant, prattling on his knee,
Does a' his weary kiaugh and care beguile,
And makes him quite forget his labor and his toil.

IV.

Belyve, the elder bairns come drappin in,

At fervice out amang the Farmers roun'; Some ca' the pleugh, fome herd, fome tentie tin A cannie errand to a neebor town: Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman-grown, In youthfu' bloom, Love fparkling in her e'e, Comes hame, perhaps, to fhew a braw new gown; Or depofite her fair-won penny-fee,

To help her parents dear, if they in hardship be.

V.

With joy unfeign'd, brothers and fifters meet, PL
And each for other's welfare kindly fpiers; "T
The focial hours, fwift-wing'd unnotic'd fleet;
Each tells the uncos that he fees or hears.
The parents, partial, eye their hopeful years; d ̃T
Anticipation forward points the view;

The Mother, wi' her needle and her sheers
Gars auld claes look amaift as weel's the new ;
The Father mixes a' wi' admonition due.

VI.

Their Mafters' and their Miftrefs' command
The yonkers a' are warned to obey;

And mind their labours wi' an eydent hand,
And ne'er, tho' out o' fight, to jauk or play;
And O! be fure to fear the Lord alway!

And mind your duty, duly, morn an' night! Left in temptation's path ye gang aftray, 15t Implore his counsel and affifting might studded T They never faught in vain that faught the LORD aright.'

VII.

But hark! a rap comes gently to the door,
Jenny, wha kens the meaning o' the fame,
Tells how a neebor lad came o'er the moor,

To do fome errands, and convoy her hame, a The wily mother fees the confcious flame sob Sparkle in Jenny's e'e, and flufh her cheek, b With heart-ftruck anxious care, enquires his name, Trish rod ashogab 10

G 5

While Jenny hafflins is afraid to fpeak; me Weel pleas'd the mother hears, 'tis nae wild worth55-lefs rake.

VIII.

With kindly welcome Jenny brings him ben;
A ftrappan youth; he takes the Mother's eye;
Blythe Jenny fees the vifit's no ill ta'en;

The Father cracks o' horfes, pleughs, and kye. The Youngster's artlefs heart o'erfiows wi' joy,

But blate an' laithfu', fcarce can weel behave; The Mother, w' a woman's wiles, can fpy

What makes the youth fae bafhfu' and fae grave; Weel pleas'd to think her bairn's refpected like the olded lave.no foto tosing of

IX.

happy love! where love like this is found! O heart felt raptures! blifs beyond compare! Pre paced much, this weary mortal round, And fage Experience bids me this declareIf heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure fpare, One cordial in this melancholy Vale,. 'Tis when a youthfull, loving, modest Pair, In other's arms, breathe out the tender tale, Beneath the milk-white thorn that feents t ev'ning gale.

Is there, in human form, that bears a heart

the

A Wretch a Villain! lol to Love and Truth! That can, with ftudied, fly, enfnaring art,

Betray fweet Jenny's unfufpecting youth 77 Curfe on his perjur'd arts! diffembling fmooth! Are Honour, Virtue, Confcience, all exil'd? Is there no Pity, no relenting Ruth,

Points to the Parents' fondling o'er their Child? Then paints the ruin'à Maid, and their diftraction wild!

XI.

But now the Supper crowns their fimple board, The healfome Porritch, chief of Scotia's food: The foup their only Hawke does afford,

That 'yont the hallan fnugly chows her cood : The dame brings forth, in complimental mood, Το grace. the lad, her weel-hain'd kebbuck fell, An' aft he's preft, an' aft he ca's it guid;

The frugal Wife, garrulous will tell,

How 'twas a towmond auld fin' Lint was i' the bell

XII.

The chearfu' Supper done, wi' ferious face,
They, round the ingle, form a circle wide;
The Sire turns o'er with
er with Patriarchal grace,

The big ba'-Bible, ance his Father's pride;
His bonnet rev'rently is laid afide,

His lyart haffets wearing thin and bare; Thofe ftrains that once did fweet in Zion glide, He wales a portion with judicious care;

And let us worship GOD!' he fays, with folemn air.

XIII.

They chaunt their artlefs notes in fimple guife;

They tune their hearts by far the nobleft aim: Perhaps Dundee's wild-warbling meafures rife,

C

Or plaintive Martyrs worthy of the name; Or noble Elgin beets the heaven-ward flame, or not The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays: 1962 T Compar'd with thefe, Italian thrills are tame; The tickl'd ears no heart-felt raptures raife; I Nae unifon hae they with our Creator's praife.es red_ quet weltid silt badine

XIV.

The prieft-like Father reads the facred page,
How Abram was the Friend of GOD on high;
Or, Mofes bade eternal warfare wage
With Amaleck's ungracious progeny;
Or how the royal Bard did groaning lye,
Beneath the ftroke of heaven's avenging ire;
Or Job's pathetic plaint, and wailing cry ;.
Or rapt Ifaiah's wild, feraphic fire;

Or other Holy Seers that tune the facred lyre.cz

XV.

Perhaps the Chriflian Volume is the theme,
How guiltlefs blood for guilty man was fhed;
How He, who bore in Heaven the fecond name,
Had not on Earth whereon to lay His head;
How His firft followers and fervants fped;
The Precepts fage they wrote to many a land:
How he who lone in Patmos banished,

Saw in the fun a mighty Angel ftand,

And heard great Bab lon's doom pronounc'd by

Heav'n's command.