o season meat with health instead of spice.
When we have ta'en the grace-drink at this well,
I'll whistle syne'--

The second scene opens with an exquisite description of

'A flowrie howm between twa verdant braes,
Where lasses use to wash and spread their claes;
A trottin' burnie wimpling through the ground,
Its channel, pebbles, shining, smooth and round.
Here view twa barefoot beauties, clean and clear.'

These are Peggy and Jenny. The latter proposes to begin their work on
the 'howm' or green in question, but Peggy entreats her to

Gae farer up the burn to Habbie's How,
Where a' that's sweet in spring and simmer grow;
Between twa birks out o'er a little linn
The water fa's, and makes a singin' din;
A pool breast-deep, beneath as clear as glass,
Kisses wi' easy whirles the bordering grass.
We'll end our washing while the morning's cool,
And when the day grows het we'll to the pool,
There wash oursels; 'tis healthfu' now in May,
And sweetly cauler on sae warm a day.'

The girls then enter on a discussion regarding Jenny's cruel
indifference to Roger. The maiden, who by the way is a bit of a prude,
affects to despise love and marriage, but in the end, overcome by
Peggy's beautiful description of conjugal happiness, is obliged to
confess her love for Roger. What more delightful picture of maternal
yearning over the young have we in all English literature, than Peggy's
splendid defence of motherhood?--

'Yes, it's a heartsome thing to be a wife,
When round the ingle-edge young sprouts are rife.
Gif I'm sae happy, I shall have delight
To hear their little plaints, and keep them right.
Wow, Jenny! can there greater pleasure be,
Than see sic wee tots toolying at your knee;
When a' they ettle at,--their greatest wish,
Is to be made of and obtain a kiss?
Can there be toil in tenting day and night
The like of them, when love makes care delight?'

The first scene of the Second Act opens with a picture of a peasant
farmer's 'onstead'; to wit, his dwelling and outhouses--

'A snug thack-house; before the door a green;
Hens on the midden, ducks in dubs are seen;
On this side stands a barn, on that a byre:
A peat stack joins, and forms a rural square.'

Here the neighbours, Glaud and Symon, meet. The latter has been into
Edinburgh to sell his 'crummock and her bassened quey,' and over their
p