or or against
us--we are not yet done with them. The cosmopolite is but a puny
abortion--a birth ere the natural time, that at once endangers the life
and betrays the weakness of the country that bears him. Would that he
were sleeping in his elements till his proper time! But we are getting
ashamed of our country, of our language, our manners, our music, our
literature; nor shall we have enough of the old spirit left us to assert
our liberties or fight our battles. Oh, for some Barbour or Blind Harry
of the present day, to make us, once more, proud of our country!"

I quoted the famous saying of Fletcher of Salton--"Allow me to make the
songs of a country, and I will allow you to make its laws."

"But here," I said, "is our lugger stealing round Turnberry Head. We
shall soon part, perhaps for ever, and I would fain know with whom I
have spent an hour so agreeably, and have some name to remember him by.
My own name is Matthew Lindsay; I am a native of Irvine."

"And I," said the young man, rising and cordially grasping the proffered
hand, "am a native of Ayr; my name is Robert Burns."

CHAPTER II.

If friendless, low, we meet together,
Then, sir, your hand--my friend and brother!
_Dedication to G. Hamilton._

A light breeze had risen as the sun sunk, and our lugger, with all her
sails set, came sweeping along the shore. She had nearly gained the
little bay in front of the cave, and the countrymen from above, to the
number of perhaps twenty, had descended to the beach, when, all of a
sudden, after a shrill whistle, and a brief half minute of commotion
among the crew, she wore round and stood out to sea. I turned to the
south, and saw a square-rigged vessel shooting out from behind one
of the rocky headlands, and then bearing down in a long tack on
the smuggler. "The sharks are upon us," said one of the countrymen,
whose eyes had turned in the same direction--"we shall have no sport
to-night." We stood lining the beach in anxious curiosity; the breeze
freshened as the evening fell; and the lugger, as she lessened to our
sight, went leaning against the foam in a long bright furrow, that,
catching the last light of evening, shone like the milky way amid the
blue. Occasionally we could see the flash, and hear the booming of a gun
from the other vessel; but the night fell thick and dark; the waves too
began to lash against the rocks, drowning every feebler sound in a
continuous