Page:Life of Robert Burns, the Ayrshire Bard.pdf/6

6 letters, which used to set us all in tears." "To the buffetings of misfortune," says Gilbert, "we could only oppose hard labour, and the most rigid economy. We lived very sparingly. I doubt not but the hard labour and sorrow of this period of life was, in a great measure, the cause of that depression of spirits with which Robert was so often afflicted through his whole life afterwards." About a year after this period, their old school-master, Mr. Murdoch, having established himself in the town of Ayr, Robert for some time attend him there, and learned a little English grammar, Latin, and French. In the meantime, he read with great avidity every book chance threw in his way. The removal of the family to Lochlea took place when Burns was in his sixteenth year; a little before which period, according to his own account, he "first committed the sin of rhyme." In one of his epistles he says :―