Wi' glowrin een, and lifted han's
Poor Hughoc like a statue stan's;
He saw her days were near-hand ended,
But, wae's my heart! he could na mend it!
He gaped wide, but naething spak,

At length poor Mailie silence brak.

edition is of 1772. In Mailie's Elegy Burns follows an old rant on the death of Habbie Simson, a piper.

The text of "The Death, &c.," is from the Kilmarnock Edition, 1786. The title in the Common-place Book has "my ain pet yowe." The other variations are unimportant, except that in the MS., as in the first edition, the line, An' warn him, what I winna name," is put more bluntly, and first altered to its present form in 1787.

2 A neibour herd-callan. - R. B.

THE DEATH OF POOR MAILIE

"O thou, whase lamentable face
Appears to mourn my woefu' case!
My dying words attentive hear,
An' bear them to my Master dear.

"Tell him, if e'er again he keep
As muckle gear as buy a sheep-
O, bid him never tie them mair,
Wi' wicked strings o' hemp or hair!
But ca' them out to park or hill,
An' let them wander at their will:
So may his flock increase, an' grow
To scores o' lambs, an' packs o' woo'!

"Tell him, he was a Master kin',
An' aye was guid to me an' mine;
An' now my dying charge I gie him,
My helpless lambs, I trust them wi' him.

"O, bid him save their harmless lives,
Frae dogs, an' tods, an' butcher's knives!
But gie them guid cow-milk their fill,
Till they be fit to fend themsel';
An' tenta them duly, e'en an' morn,
Wi' taets o' hay an' ripps' o' corn.

"An' may they never learn the gates,
Of ither vile, wanrestfu'h pets-
To slink thro' slaps, an' reave an' steal
At stacks o' pease, or stocks o' kail!
So may they, like their great forbears,1
For mony a year come thro' the shears:
So wives will gie them bits o' bread,

An' bairns greet for them when they're dead.

"My poor toop-lamb, my son an' heir,

O, bid him breed him up wi' care!

An' if he live to be a beast,

To pit some havins in his breast!

"An' warn him-what I winna name-
To stay content wi' yowes at hame;
An' no to rin an' wear his cloots,
Like ither menseless, graceless brutes.

с

"An' neist, my yowie,d silly thing,
Gude keep thee frae a tether string!
O, may thou ne'er forgather up,
Wi' ony blastit, moorland toop;

е

But aye keep mind to moop an' mell,'
Wi' sheep of credit like thysel'!

"And now, my bairns, wi' my last breath,

I lea'e my blessin wi' you baith:

An' when you think upo' your mither,
Mind to be kind to ane anither.

"Now, honest Hughoc, dinna fail,
To tell my master a' my tale;
An' bid him burn this cursed tether,
An' for thy pains thou'se get my blather."

This said, poor Mailie turn'd her head,
An' clos'd her een amang the dead!

POOR MAILIE'S ELEGY

Poor Mailie's Elegy.

LAMENT in rhyme, lament in prose,

Wi' saut tears trickling down your nose;
Our bardie's fate is at a close,

Past a' remead! a

The last, sad cape-stane o' his woes;

Poor Mailie's dead!

It's no the loss o' warl's gear,
That could sae bitter draw the tear,
Or mak our bardie, dowie, wear

The mourning weed:
He's lost a friend an' neebor dear
In Mailie dead.

Thro' a' the town she trotted by him;
A lang half-mile she could descry him;
Wi' kindly bleat, when she did spy him,
She ran wi' speed:
A friend mair faithfu' ne'er cam nigh him,
Than Mailie dead.

I wat she was a sheep o' sense,
An' could behave hersel' wi' mense: "
I'll say't, she never brak a fence,

Thro' thievish greed.

Our bardie, lanely, keeps the spenced
Sin' Mailie's dead.

Or, if he wanders up the howe,
Her livin image in her yowe

Comes bleating till him, owre the knowe,'

For bits o' bread;

An' down the briny pearls rowe

For Mailie dead.

She was nae get" o' moorland tips,b
Wi' tauted ket, an' hairy hips;

с

For her forbears were brought in ships,

Frae 'yont the Tweed.

A bonier fleesh ne'er cross'd the clips

Than Mailie's dead.1

Wae worth the man wha first did shape
That vile, wanchancied thing-a raip!®
It maks guid fellows girn an' gape,

Wi' chokin dread;

An' Robin's bonnet wave wi' crape
For Mailie dead.

O, a' ye bards on bonie Doon!
An' wha on Ayr your chanters tune!
Come, join the melancholious croon
O' Robin's reed!

His heart will never get aboon'

His Mailie's dead!

Song-The Rigs o' Barley.2

Tune-"Corn Rigs are bonie."

It was upon a Lammas night,
When corn rigs are bonie,
Beneath the moon's unclouded light,
I held awa to Annie;

The time flew by, wi' tentless heed,
Till, 'tween the late and early,
Wi' sma' persuasion she agreed
To see me thro' the barley.

⚫ offspring.

d unlucky.

b rams.
e rope.

1 In an earlier MS. copy this verse runs thus:

She was nae get o' runted rams,
Wi' woo' like goats and legs like trams,
She was the flower o' Fairlie lambs,
A famous breed;

matted fleece. f above it.

Now Robin, greetin, chows the hams
O Mailie dead.

2 Probably of 1782-83. The Annie of this Oaristys is unknown; possibly she was a Mrs Merry, who claimed the distinction.