Tam lo'ed him like a vera brither;
They had been fou for weeks thegither,
The night drave on wi' fangs an clatter;
And ay the ale was growing better:
The landlady and Tam grew gracious,
Wi' favours, fecret, fweet, and precious:
The Souter tauld his queereft ftories;
The landlord's laugh was ready chorus:
The storm without might rair and rustle,
Tam did na mind the ftorm a whiftle.

Care, mad to fee a man fae happy, E'en drown'd himself amang the nappy, As bees flee hame wi' lades o' treasure, The minutes wing'd their way wi' pleasure: Kings may be bleft, but Tam was glorious, O'er a' the ills o' life victorious!

But pleasures are like poppies spread, You feize the flow'r, its bloom is fhed;

Or

Or like the snow falls in the river,

A moment white-then melts for ever;

Or like the borealis race,

That flit ere you can point their place;

Or like the rainbow's lovely form
Evanishing amid the ftorm.-

Nae man can tether time or tide ;

The hour approaches Tam maun ride;

That hour, o' night's black arch the key-ftane, That dreary hour he mounts his beast in; And fic a night he tacks the road in,

As ne'er poor finner was abroad in.

The wind blew as 'twad blawn its last ;
The rattling show'rs rofe on the blast ;
;

The speedy gleams the darkness swallow'd;
Loud, deep, and lang, the thunder bellow'd:
That night, a child might understand,
The Deil had bufinefs on his hand.

Weel mounted on his grey mare, Meg,
A better never lifted leg,

Tam skelpit on thro' dub and mire,
Defpifing wind, and rain, and fire;

Whiles holding faft his gude blue bonnet;
Whiles crooning o'er fome auld Scots fonnet;
Whiles glow'ring round wi' prudent cares,
Left bogles catch him unawares :
Kirk-Alloway was drawing nigh,

Whare ghaifts and houlets nightly cry.

By this time he was cross the ford, Whare in the fnaw the chapman fmoor'd; And paft the birks and meikle stane, Whare drunken Charlie brak's neck-bane; And thro' the whins, and by the cairn, Whare hunters fand the murder'd bairn; And near the thorn, aboon the well, Whare Mungo's mither hang'd hersel.—

Before

Before him Doon pours all his floods;
The doubling ftorm roars thro' the woods;
The lightnings flash from pole to pole;

Near and more near the thunders roll:
When, glimmering thro' the groaning trees,
Kirk-Alloway seem'd in a bleeze;

Thro' ilka bore the beams were glancing; And loud refounded mirth and dancing.

Infpiring bold John Barleycorn!
What dangers thou canst make us fcorn!
Wi' tippeny, we fear nae evil;

Wi' ufquabae we'll face the devil!

The fwats fae ream'd in Tammie's noddle,
Fair play, he car'd na deils a boddle.
But Maggie ftood right fair astonish'd,
Till, by the heel and hand admonish'd,
She ventur'd forward on the light;
And, vow! Tam faw an unco fight!

Warlocks

Warlocks and witches in a dance;
Nae cotillion brent new frae France,"

But hornpipes, jigs, ftrathfpeys, and reels,
Put life and mettle in their heels,

A winnock-bunker in the east,

There fat auld Nick, in shape o' beast;
A towzie tyke, black, grim, and large,
To gie them mufic was his charge:

He screw'd the pipes and gart them skirl,
Till roof and rafters a' did dirl.-

Coffins flood round, like open preffes,

That fhaw'd the dead in their last dreffes; And by fome devilish cantrip flight,

Each in its cauld hand held a light.

By which heroic Tam was able

To note upon the haly table,

A murderer's banes in gibbet airns;

Twa fpan-lang, wee, unchriften'd bairns ; A thief, new-cutted frae a rape,

Wi' his last gafp his gab did gape ;