It's no whar ten bairns mak' a hubble,
But at hers that has nae bairns ava.
Usefu', an' peacefu', an' cantie,
Quiet, an' canny, an' a',

It's gude to ha'e sister or auntie
That never was married ava.

A wife maun be humble an' hamely,
Aye ready to rise, or to rin;

An' oh! when she's brocht up a family,
It's then her warst sorrows begin;
For the son, he maun e'en ha'e a wife;
An' the dochter a hoose o' her ain;
An' then, thro' the battle o' life,
They ne'er may forgather again.

Cantie, an' quiet, an' a',
Altho' her bit mailin be sma',
In truth she is no that ill aff
That never gets married ava.

It's far better still to keep single
Than sit wi yer face at the wa',
An' greet ower the sons and the dochters
Ye've buried and married awa'.
I fain wad deny, but I canna,
Altho' to confess it I grieve,
Folks seldom care muckle for grannie,
Unless she has something to leave.

It's nae that I seek to prevent ye,
For that wad be rhyme thrown awa';
But, lassies, I pray, just content ye,
Altho' ye're ne'er married ava.

For my heart beats quick
As thy tie, tic, tic,
Resounds from the old green shelf.

When I cease to weep,

When I strive to sleep,

Thou art there with thy tiny voice;
And thoughts of the past
Come rushing fast,

E'en with that still, small voice.

'Tis said thou hast power,
At the midnight hour,
Of death and of doom to tell;
Of rest in the grave,

That the world ne'er gave,
And I love on this theme to dwell.

Dost thou call me home?—
Oh! I come, I come;

For never did lone heart pine
For a quiet berth

In its mother earth,
With a deeper throb than mine.

Then tic, tic, tic

Let thy work be quick;

I ask for no lengthen'd day-
'Tis enough, kind one,
If thy work be done
In the merry month of May.

For birds in the bowers,
And the blooming flowers,
Then gladden the teeming earth;
And methinks that I

Would like to die

In the month that gave me birth.

ERSKINE CONOLLY.

BORN 1798-DIED 1843.

ERSKINE CONOLLY, author of the popular | the small town of Colinsburgh, but after a few song of "Mary Macneil," was born at Crail, Fifeshire, June 12, 1798. He was educated at the burgh-school of his native place, and afterwards apprenticed to a bookseller in Anstruther the birthplace of Chalmers, Tennant, and Charles Gray. He then started business on his own account as a bookseller in

years gave it up and went to Edinburgh. Here he became a messenger-at-arms-a vocation, it would naturally be inferred, of all others unsuited for a poet; but in "Auld Reekie" a great part of the messenger's business consists in serving merely formal writs, and he is rarely a witness to scenes of real

ROBERT GILFILLAN was born, July 7, 1798, | While thus engaged he found time for composat Dunfermline, in the county of Fife. His parents were in humble circumstances, but were much respected in their neighbourhood. Robert, their second son, received the rudiments of his education at a Dunfermline school, and at the age of thirteen his parents removed to Leith, where he was bound apprentice to the trade of a cooper. To this handicraft, however, he seems never to have taken kindly; yet he faithfully served his employers the usual period of seven years, giving his earnings from week to week to his mother, and enlivening his leisure hours by reading every book he could borrow, composing verses, and playing on a one-keyed flute, which he purchased with a small sum of money found by him in the streets of Leith. It was at this time, and ever afterward, his practice to read to his mother and sister (he never married) his songs as he wrote them; and he was entirely guided by their judgment regarding them. This was an improvement on Molière and his housekeeper.

ing, and in 1831 published a volume of Origi nal Songs, which was favourably received. Encouraged by his success, Gilfillan issued in 1835 another edition, containing fifty additional songs. Soon after the publication of this volume he was entertained at a public dinner in Edinburgh, when a splendid silver cup was presented to him. In 1837 he was appointed collector of police-rates at Leith—a highly respectable position, which he retained until his death. In 1839 he published a third and still larger edition of his original volume, sixty new songs and poems being added to the collection. Mr. Gilfillan died of apoplexy at Hermitage Place, Leith, Dec. 4, 1850, aged fifty-two. A handsome monument was erected by a few friends and admirers over his grave in the churchyard of South Leith, where also rest the remains of John Home, the eminent dramatic poet.

At the end of his apprenticeship he became an assistant to a grocer in his native town, with whom he remained for three years. He subsequently returned to Leith, and from his twenty-third till his thirty-ninth year acted as clerk for an extensive wine-merchant. VOL. II.-M

The year after his death a fourth edition of his poetical works was published in Edinburgh, with an interesting memoir of the gentle poet, who is frequently referred to in the Noctes Ambrosiana by the Ettrick Shepherd as the "fine chiel doun at Leith." His biographer says-"He fills a place in Scottish poetry altogether different and distinct from any of

Why should they perish?-the blossoms we They say that life's short, and they dinna say