an untimely end.

Burns in his twenty-third year took the farm at Mossgiel, where he first
became acquainted with Jane Armour. This lady was the daughter of a
respectable mason in the village of Mauchline, where she was the
reigning beauty and belle. It was almost love at first sight upon the
part of both, and a close intimacy soon sprung up between them. Burns
was very handsome at this time, gay and fascinating in manners, and a
more experienced and highly-placed woman than Jane Armour might have
been excused for loving the wild young poet. For wild he undoubtedly
was, even at this time,--so much so that her parents objected to the
friendship. He was nearly six feet high, with a robust yet agile frame,
a finely formed head, and an uncommmonly interesting countenance. His
eyes were large, dark, and full of ardor and animation. His conversation
was full of wit and humor. He was very proud, and would be under
pecuniary obligation to no one. He was also very generous with his own
money. Of the first five hundred pounds which he received for his poems,
he immediately gave two hundred to his brother Gilbert to help toward
the support of their mother; and he was always as ready to share
whatever sum he had with those he loved.

The consequences of the intimacy between the poet and Jane Armour were
soon such as could not be concealed, and the farm having been a
disastrous speculation in the hands of Burns, he was not in a situation
to marry, although extremely anxious to do so. It was therefore agreed
upon between them that he should give her a written acknowledgment of
marriage, and then sail for Jamaica, and push his fortunes there. This
arrangement, however, did not suit the lady's father, who had a very
poor opinion of Burns's general character, and he prevailed upon Jane
to destroy this document. Under these circumstances she became the
mother of twins, and great scandal followed Burns even to Edinburgh,
where he had been induced to stop instead of sailing for Jamaica. But
his poems, which he succeeded in publishing at this time, gave him a
name and some money, and he returned to Mossgiel, and getting her father
to consent, married Jane, and moved on to a farm six miles from
Dumfries. He had become a lion, and the tables of the neighboring gentry
were soon open to him, as the houses of the great had been in Edinburgh.
Those were the days of conviviality, and Burns took his part in the
hilarity of the table, soon with ver