ld sleep without telling you what's come to me. It's this Burns
man," she went on; "no one, not even Shakespeare, has spoken so. It's
as though he taught a new religion. It's kindness all through, and
charity and love; with rhymes upon rhymes, as if it were child's play
for him to make verses. It's raised me out of myself. It's what I've
always known was true. It's the liberty, equality, and fraternity of
France. It's the 'all men were born free and equal' of the colonies.
It's all, and more, that I've tried to work out on the burn-side. It's
like a great voice calling. Oh," she cried, "Ramsay's nothing to him,
and Fergusson but a gusty child."

"Nancy, darling," I said, "have ye risen in the middle of the night to
tear down the idols of your childhood? Let me see the book," I cried,
for a bit of rhyme was a choicer draught to me than a glass of an old
vintage.

"Let me read ye this," she said--I can remember now the slant white
light of a late moon coming in through the casement, the honeysuckle's
breath, and her face, half in light, half in shadow, as she read the
Epistle to Davie. As I listened I sat upright, more engrossed, wider
eyed; and when she came to those two stanzas, the greatest of their
kind ever penned, I was off my feet with her, and on my oath we sat
till the purpling flush came in the east, in an ecstasy of appreciation
of him "who walked in glory and in joy behind his plow upon the
mountain-side":

"What tho', like commoners of air,
We wander out, we know not where,
_But_ either house or hall _without_
Yet nature's charms, the hills and woods,
The sweeping vales, an' foaming floods
Are free alike to all
In days when daisies deck the ground,
And blackbirds whistle clear,
With honest joy our hearts will bound,
To see the coming year:
On _braes_ when we please then, _heights_.
We'll sit an' _sowth_ a tune; _whistle softly_
_Syne_ rhyme till't, we'll
time _till't_, _afterwards. to it._
An' sing't when we hae done."

"Oh, Jock," she says, "I've done it often; haven't you?"

"It's no in titles nor in rank;
It's no in wealth like Lon'non bank.
To purchase peace and rest;
It's no in makin' muckle mair
It's no in books, it's no in _lear_ _learning_
To make us truly blest:
If happiness hae no