could have procured success, they would
not have failed. It was this period of his life which Robert
afterwards described, as combining "the cheerless gloom of a hermit
with the unceasing moil of galley-slave." The family did their best,
but a niggard soil and bad seasons were too much for them. At length,
on the death of his landlord, who had always dealt generously by him,
William Burness fell into the grip of a factor, whose tender mercies
were hard. This man wrote letters which set the whole family in tears.
The poet has not given his name, but he has preserved his portrait in
colours which are indelible:--

I've noticed, on our Laird's court-day,
An' mony a time my heart's been wae,
Poor tenant bodies, scant o' cash,
How they maun thole a factor's snash;
He'll stamp an' threaten, curse and swear,
He'll apprehend them, poind their gear,
While they maun stan', wi aspect humble,
And hear it a', an' fear an' tremble.

In his autobiographical sketch the poet tells us that, "The farm
proved a ruinous bargain. I was the eldest of seven children, and (p. 005)
my father, worn out by early hardship, was unfit for labour. His
spirit was soon irritated, but not easily broken. There was a freedom
in the lease in two years more; and to weather these two years we
retrenched expenses, and toiled on." Robert and Gilbert, the two
eldest, though still boys, had to do each a grown man's full work. Yet
for all their hardships these Mount Oliphant days were not without
alleviations. If poverty was at the door, there was warm family
affection by the fireside. If the two sons had, long before manhood,
to bear toil beyond their years, still they were living under their
parents' roof, and those parents two of the wisest and best of
Scotland's peasantry. Work was no doubt incessant, but education was
not neglected--rather it was held one of the most sacred duties. When
Robert was five years old, he had been sent to a school at Alloway
Mill, and when the family removed to Mount Oliphant, his father
combined with four of his neighbours to hire a young teacher, who
boarded among them, and taught their children for a small salary. This
young teacher, whose name was Murdoch, has left an interesting
description of his two young pupils, their parents, and the household
life while he sojourned at Mount Oliphant. At that time Mu