RINS

Belyve,* the elder bairns come drapping in, At service out, amang the farmers roun'; Some ca' the pleugh, some herd, some tentie** rin A cannie*** errand to a neebor town: Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman grown, In youthfu' bloom, love sparkling in her e'e Comes hame, perhaps, to show a braw new gown, Or deposite her sair-won penny-fee,*** To help her parents dear, if they in hardship be.

There is the field mouse--the "wee sleekit,* cow'rin', tim'rous beastie," whose nest he turned up and destroyed in his November plowing.