y with animals. The frequency of passages of pathos on the
sufferings of beasts and birds may be in part due to the influence of
Sterne, but in the main its origin is not literary but is an
expression of a tender heart and a lifelong friendly intercourse. In
this relation Burns most often allows his sentiment to come to the
edge of sentimentality, yet in fairness it must be said that he seldom
crosses the line. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he had no need
to force the note; it was his instinct both as a farmer and as a lover
of animals to think, when he heard the storm rise, how it would affect
the lower creation.

List'ning the doors and winnocks rattle, [windows]
I thought me on the ourie cattle, [shivering]
Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle [onset]
O' winter war,
And thro' the drift, deep-lairing, sprattle [-sinking, scramble]
Beneath a scar.

Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing! [Each hopping]
That, in the merry months o' spring,
Delighted me to hear thee sing,
What comes o' thee?
Where wilt thou cow'r thy chittering wing,
An' close thy e'e? [eye]
_A Winter Night._

A number of his most popular pieces are the expression of this
warm-hearted sympathy, a sympathy not confined to suffering but
extending to enjoyment of life and sunshine, and at times leading him
to the half-humorous, half-tender ascription to horses and sheep of a
quasi-human intelligence. Were we to indulge further our conjectures
as to what Burns might have done under more favorable circumstances,
it would be easy to argue that he could have ranked with Henryson and
La Fontaine as a writer of fables.

TO A MOUSE, ON TURNING HER UP IN HER NEST WITH THE PLOUGH,
NOVEMBER, 1785

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie, [sleek]
O what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle! [hurrying rush]
I wad na be laith to rin an' chase thee [loath]
Wi' murd'ring pattle! [plough-staff]

I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy