Doun comes a jaw o' droukin' rain
Upon their honours-

God sends a spate outower the plain,
Or mebbe thun'ers.

Lord safe us, life's an unco thing! Simmer an' Winter, Yule an' Spring, The damned, dour-heartit seasons bring A feck o' trouble.

I wadnae try't to be a king

No, nor for double.

But since we're in it, willy-nilly,
We maun be watchfü', wise an' skilly,
An' no mind ony ither billy,

Lassie nor God.

But drink that's my best counsel till 'e

Sae tak the nod.

MY

Y bonny man, the warld, it's true,
Was made for neither me nor you;
It's just a place to warstle through,
As Job confessed o't;

And aye the best that we'll can do
Is mak the best o't.

There's rowth o' wrang, I'm free to say:
The simmer brunt, the winter blae,
The face of earth a' fyled wi' clay
An' dour wi' chuckies,

An' life a rough an' land'art play
For country buckies.

An' food's anither name for clart;
An' beasts an' brambles bite an' scart;
An' what would we be like, my heart!
If bared o' claethin'?

Aweel, I cannae mend your cart:
It's that or naethin'.

A feck o' folk frae first to last

Have through this queer experience passed;

Twa-three, I ken, just damn an' blast
The hale transaction;

But twa-three ithers, east an' wast,
Fand satisfaction.

Whaur braid the briery muirs expand,
A waefü' an' a weary land,

The bumblebees, a gowden band,
Are blithely hingin';

An' there the canty wanderer fand
The laverock singin'.

Trout in the burn grow great as herr'n;
The simple sheep can find their fair'n';
The wind blaws clean about the cairn
Wi' caller air;

The muircock an' the barefit bairn
Are happy there.

Sic-like the howes o' life to some:

Green loans whaur they ne'er fash their thumb, But mark the muckle winds that come,

Soopin' an' cool,

Or hear the powrin' burnie drum

In the shilfa's pool.

The evil wi' the guid they tak;
They ca' a gray thing gray, no black;
To a steigh brae, a stubborn back.

Addressin' daily;

An' up the rude, unbieldy track
O' life, gang gaily.

THE COUNTERBLAST-1886

What you would like's a palace ha',
Or Sinday parlour dink an' braw
Wi' a' things ordered in a raw
By denty leddies.

Weel, than, ye cannae hae't: that's a'
That to be said is.

An' since at life ye've ta'en the grue,
An' winnae blithely hirsle through,
Ye've fund the very thing to do-
That's to drink speerit;

An' shüne we'll hear the last o' you—
An' blithe to hear it!

The shoon ye coft, the life ye lead, Ithers will heir when aince ye're deid; They'll heir your tasteless bite o' breid, An' find it sappy;

They'll to your dulefü' house succeed, An' there be happy.

As whan a glum an' fractious wean
Has sat an' sullened by his lane
Till, wi' a rowstin' skelp, he's taen
An' shoo'd to bed

The ither bairns a' fa' to play'n',
As gleg's a gled.

IX

THE COUNTERBLAST IRONICAL

T'S strange that God should fash to frame should

The yearth and lift sae hie,

An' clean forget to explain the same

To a gentleman like me.

They gutsy, donnered ither folk,

Their weird they weel may dree;

But why present a pig in a poke
To a gentleman like me?

They ither folk their parritch eat
An' sup their sugared tea;

But the mind is no to be wyled wi' meat
Wi' a gentleman like me.

They ither folk, they court their joes

At gloamin' on the lea;

But they're made of a commoner clay, I suppose, Than a gentleman like me.

They ither folk, for richt or wrang,

They suffer, bleed, or dee;

But a' thir things are an emp'y sang
To a gentleman like me.