Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/130

92 And oft the milkmaid, in her dreams,

Drums in the pail with the flashing streams,

Murmuring, "So, boss! so!"

.

To a Mouse,

ON TURNING UP HER NEST WITH THE PLOW,

NOVEMBER, 1785

[The lines "To a Mouse" seem by report to have been composed while Burns was actually plowing. One of the poet's first editors wrote: "John Blane, who had acted as gaudsman to Burns, and who lived sixty years afterward, had a distinct recollection of the turning up of the mouse. Like a thoughtless youth as he was, he ran after the creature to kill it, but was checked and recalled by his master, who he observed became thereafter thoughtful and abstracted. Burns, who treated his servants with the familiarity of fellow-labourers, soon afterward read the poem to Blane."

, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie,

Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Thou needna start awa' sae hasty,

Wi' bickering brattle!

I wad be laith to rin and chase thee,

Wi' murd'ring pattle!