l sned besoms, thraw saugh woodies,
Before they want.

He would cut brooms and twist willow-ropes before his children should
want. But perhaps, as the latest editor of Burns' poems observes, his
best saying on the subject of the excisemanship was that word to Lady
Glencairn, the mother of his patron, "I would much rather have it said
that my profession borrowed credit from me, than that I borrowed it
from my profession."

In these words we see something of the bitterness about his new (p. 105)
employment, which often escaped from him, both in prose and verse.
Nevertheless, having undertaken it, he set his face honestly to the
work. He had to survey ten parishes, covering a tract of not less than
fifty miles each way, and requiring him to ride two hundred miles a
week. Smuggling was then common throughout Scotland, both in the shape
of brewing and of selling beer and whiskey without licence. Burns took
a serious yet humane view of his duty. To the regular smuggler he is
said to have been severe; to the country folk, farmers or cotters, who
sometimes transgressed, he tempered justice with mercy. Many stories
are told of his leniency to these last. At Thornhill, on a fair day,
he was seen to call at the door of a poor woman who for the day was
doing a little illicit business on her own account. A nod and a
movement of the forefinger brought the woman to the doorway. "Kate,
are you mad? Don't you know that the supervisor and I will be in upon
you in forty minutes?" Burns at once disappeared among the crowd, and
the poor woman was saved a heavy fine. Another day the poet and a
brother gauger entered a widow's house at Dunscore and seized a
quantity of smuggled tobacco. "Jenny," said Burns, "I expected this
would be the upshot. Here, Lewars, take note of the number of rolls as
I count them. Now, Jock, did you ever hear an auld wife numbering her
threads before check-reels were invented? Thou's ane, and thou's no
ane, and thou's ane a'out--listen." As he handed out the rolls, and
numbered them, old-wife fashion, he dropped every other roll into
Jenny's lap. Lewars took the desired note with becoming gravity, and
saw as though he saw not. Again, a woman who had been brewing, on
seeing Burns coming with another exciseman, slipped out by the back
door, leaving a servant and a little girl in the house. "Has (p. 106)
there been ony brewing for the fair here the day?" "O no, sir, we hae
nae licence