34
life's reverses.
Though braggart an' sporter were stamped on his name,
A rakish repute was mair glory than shame.
Sae thoucht the young leddy wha's nuptials tak' place,
Wha had lang thrown the hypocrite's mask frae her face,
Sae soon as had vanished a' chance o' the squire,
An' the gay rake her charms had professed to admire,
The kirk for the opera quick she forsook,
Was marked "donor" nae mair in ilk charity book;
But in ba' route an' race-course displayed ilka grace,
Till the scion was caught o' short purse, but lang race.
We needna gang hame wi' the wedded, I ween,
The squire's bonnie leddy's by nature a queen;
O' her weel-deserved happiness easy, we guess,
Still see in her gran' ha's our ain simple Jess.
An' enough o' Miss Clara, the heartless an' proud,
We ken, not to feel that her future's a cloud.
Sae wi' Tam at the college pursuing his lear,
And Maggie at hame free, guid-natured, an' fair,
Mrs Lee, in her feelin' an' mitherly way,
Pourin' balm on some wounded heart day after day,—
We lea' them, an' let some lang years intervene,
Before we again meet ilk face and ilk scene.
******
The grun' wears a snaw shroud, and sae does the trees,
Snaw darkens an' loadens the cauld piercin' breeze,
Tis a nicht for a roof 'twixt ane's head an' the sky,
For the gale to a tempest is risin' fu' high;
'Tis just sic a nicht as when Tammy and Jess
Returned frae the ha' in sic nameless distress,
A rakish repute was mair glory than shame.
Sae thoucht the young leddy wha's nuptials tak' place,
Wha had lang thrown the hypocrite's mask frae her face,
Sae soon as had vanished a' chance o' the squire,
An' the gay rake her charms had professed to admire,
The kirk for the opera quick she forsook,
Was marked "donor" nae mair in ilk charity book;
But in ba' route an' race-course displayed ilka grace,
Till the scion was caught o' short purse, but lang race.
We needna gang hame wi' the wedded, I ween,
The squire's bonnie leddy's by nature a queen;
O' her weel-deserved happiness easy, we guess,
Still see in her gran' ha's our ain simple Jess.
An' enough o' Miss Clara, the heartless an' proud,
We ken, not to feel that her future's a cloud.
Sae wi' Tam at the college pursuing his lear,
And Maggie at hame free, guid-natured, an' fair,
Mrs Lee, in her feelin' an' mitherly way,
Pourin' balm on some wounded heart day after day,—
We lea' them, an' let some lang years intervene,
Before we again meet ilk face and ilk scene.
******
The grun' wears a snaw shroud, and sae does the trees,
Snaw darkens an' loadens the cauld piercin' breeze,
Tis a nicht for a roof 'twixt ane's head an' the sky,
For the gale to a tempest is risin' fu' high;
'Tis just sic a nicht as when Tammy and Jess
Returned frae the ha' in sic nameless distress,
