Page:Interesting history of Robert Burns (1).pdf/7

Rh strength, and worked very hard at all the tasks of the farm. “In my seventeenth year,” he says, “To give my manners a brush, I went to a dancing-school;” and afterwards, “At the plough, scythe, or reap-hook, I feared no competitor, and thus I set want at defiance; and as I never cared farther for my labour than while I was in actual exercise, I spent my evenings in the way after my own heart. A country lad seldom carries on a love adventure without an assisting confidant. I possessed a curiosity, zeal, and intrepid dexterity, that recommended me as a proper second on these occasions, and I dare say I felt as much pleasure in being in the secret of half the loves in the parish of Tarbolton, as ever did statesman in knowing the intrigues of half the courts of Europe. While thus occupied, a number of his pieces were composed, chiefly those which relate to love, a passion of which Burns was extremely susceptible. A part of his nineteenth year was spent at Kirkoswald, whither he had gone to learn mensuration, geometry, &c. Kirkoswald, which lies on the sea coast, was at that time a great resort of smugglers, and Burns did not escape some contamination from the society he met with there. His brother Gilbert says, he observed from that period a change in his habits.

“About this time,” says Gilbert, “he and I