ite forgotten; and Burns's Ayrshire, and Dr.
MacDonald's Aberdeen-awa', and Scott's brave, metropolitan utterance
will be all equally the ghosts of speech. Till then I would love to have
my hour as a native Maker, and be read by my own countryfolk in our own
dying language; an ambition surely rather of the heart than of the head,
so restricted as it is in prospect of endurance, so parochial in bounds
of space.

TABLE OF COMMON SCOTTISH VOWEL SOUNDS

ae }
ai } = open A _as in_ rare.

a' }
au } = AW _as in_ law.
aw }

ea = open E _as in_ mere, but this with exceptions, as heather =
heather, wean = wain, lear = lair.

ee }
ei } = open E _as in_ mere.
ie }

oa = open O _as in_ more.

ou = doubled O _as in_ poor.

ow = OW _as in_ bower.

u = doubled O _as in_ poor.

ui _or_ ue before R = (say roughly) open A _as in_ rare.

ui _or_ ue before any other consonant = (say roughly) close I _as in_
grin.

y = open I _as in_ kite.

i = pretty nearly what you please, much as in English, Heaven guide the
reader through that labyrinth! But in Scots it dodges usually
from the short I, _as in_ grin, to the open E _as in_ mere. Find
and blind, I may remark, are pronounced to rhyme with the
preterite of grin.

I

THE MAKER TO POSTERITY

Far 'yont amang the years to be,
When a' we think, an' a' we see,
An' a' we luve, 's been dung ajee
By time's rouch shouther,
An' what was richt and wrang for me
Lies mangled throu'ther,

It's possible--it's hardly mair--
That some ane, ripin' after lear--
Some auld professor or young heir,
If still there's either--
May find an' read me, an' be sair
Perplexed, puir brither!

"_What tongue does your auld bookie speak?_"
He'll speir; an' I, his mou' to steik:
"_No' bein' fit to write in Greek,
I wrote in Lallan,
Dear to my heart as the peat-reek,
Auld as Tantallon._

"_Few spak it than, an' noo there's nane.
My puir auld sangs lie a' their lane,
Their sense, that aince was braw an' plain,
Tint a'thegither,
Like runes upon a standin' stane
Amang the heather._

"_But think not you the brae to speel;
You, tae, maun chow the bitter peel;
For a' your lear, for a' your skeel,
Ye're nane sae lucky;
An' things are mebbe waur than weel
Fo