But left behind her ain gray tail:
The carlin claught' her by the rump,
And left poor Maggie scarce a stump.

Now, wha this tale o' truth shall read,
Ilk' man and mother's son take heed:
Whene'er to drink you are inclined,
Or cutty-sarks run in your mind,
Think, ye may buy the joys o'er dear,
Remember Tam o' Shanter's mare.

1 Laid hold of.—2 Every.

3 Died at Lochwinnoch, on the 9th inst. (August, 1823,) Thomas Reid, laborer. He was born on the 21st of October, 1745, in the clachan of Kyle, Ayrshire. The importance attached to this circumstance arises from his being the celebrated equestrian hero of Burns's Poem "Tam O'Shanter." He has at length surmounted the "mosses, rivers, slaps, and styles" of life. For a considerable time by-past he has been in the service of Major Hervey, of Castle-Semple, nine months of which he has been incapable of labor; and to the honor of Mr. Hervey be it named, he has, with a fostering and laudable generosity, soothed, as far as it was in his power, the many ills of age and disease. He, however, still retained the desire of being "fou' for weeks thegither."-Glasgow Chronicle. Another version of this story is the following: That Tam O'Shanter was no imaginary character. Shanter is a farm near the village of Kirkoswald, where Burns, when nineteen years old, studied mensuration, and "first became acquainted with scenes of swaggering riot." The then occupier of Shanter, by name "Douglas Grahame," was, by all accounts, equally what the Tam of the poet appears-a jolly, careless rustic, who took much more interest in the contraband traffic of the coast, then carried on, than in the rotation of crops. Burns knew the man well; and to his dying day, he, nothing loath, passed among his rural compeers by the name of "Tam O'Shanter."-Lockhart's Life of Burns.

This admirable tale was written for Grose's "Antiquities of Scotland," where it first appeared, with a beautiful engraving of " Alloway's auld haunted Kirk."

DEATH AND DR. HORNBOOK.

A TRUE STORY.

[The following circumstance occasioned the composition of this poem:"The schoolmaster of Tarbolton parish, to eke up the scanty subsistence allowed to that useful class of men, had set up a shop of grocery goods. Having accidentally fallen in with some medical books, and become most hobby-horsically attached to the study of medicine, he had added the sale of a few medicines to his little trade. He had got a shop-bill printed, at the bottom of which, overlooking his own incapacity, he had advertised, that 'Advice would be given in common disorders at the shop gratis.” ”—Lockhart's Life of Burns.]

SOME books are lies frae end to end,
And some great lies were never penn'd;
Ev'n ministers, they hae been kenn'd,
In holy rapture,

A rousing whid,' at times, to vend,
And nail 't wi' Scripture.

But this that I am gaun to tell,
Which lately on a night befel,
Is just as true 's the deil 's in hell,
Or Dublin city:

That e'er he nearer comes oursel
's a muckle pity.

The clachan yill' had made me canty,
I was na fou, but just had plenty;

I stacher'd' whyles, but yet took tent" ay
To free the ditches:

An' hillocks, stanes, and bushes kenn'd ay
Frae ghaists and witches.

The rising moon began to glowers
The distant Cumnock hills out-owre;
To count her horns wi' a' my power,
I set mysel;

But whether she had three or four,

I cou'd na tell.

1 A lie.—2 Village ale.-3 Merry.-4 Drunk.-5 Staggered.-6 Took heed. - From ghosts,-8 To shine faintly.

I was come round about the hill,
And todlin" down on Willie's mill,
Setting my staff wi' a' my skill,

To keep me sicker;'

Tho' leeward whyles, against my will,
I took a bicker.s

I there wi' something did forgather1
That put me in an eerie swither;5
An awfu' scythe out-owre ae shouther,
Clear, dangling hang;

A three-taed leister" on the ither

Lay, large an' lang.

Its stature seem'd lang Scotch ells twa,
The queerest shape that e'er I saw,
For fient a wame' it had ava!8

And then, its shanks,

They were as thin, as sharp, an' sma'
As cheeks o' branks!"

“Guid-e'en," quo' I; "Friend! hae ye been mawin'
When ither folk are busy sawin' ?”10
It seem'd to mak a kind o' stan',

But naething spak;

At length, says I, "Friend, whare ye gaun,
Will ye go back?"

It spak right howe"-"My name is Death,
But be na fley'd."
"1a—Quoth I, “Guid faith!
Ye're maybe come to stap my breath;
But tent me, billie; 13

I red11 ye weel, tak care o' scaith,

15

See there's a gully!"

"Gudeman," quo' he, "put up your whittle,
I'm no design'd to try its metal;

But if I did, I wad be kittle"

To be mislear'd;18

1 Tottering.-2 Steady.- A short run.-4 Meet.-5 Frightful hesitation. - A three-pronged dart.-7 Belly.-8 At all. A kind of wooden curb for norses.-10 This rencounter happened in seed-time, 1785.-11 with a hollow tone of voice.-12 Frightened.-13 Heed me, good fellow.-14 To counsel, or advise.—15 Injury.—16 A large knife.-17 Ticklish, difficult.—18 Mischievous; i. e. it would be no easy matter for you to hurt, or do me any mischief.

I wad na mind it, no that spittle
Out-owre my beard."

"Weel, weel!" says I, "a bargain be 't;
Come, gie 's your hand, an' sae we're gree't;1
We'll ease our shanks an' tak a seat,

Come, gie's your news;

This while ye hae been monie a gate,3
At monie a house."

“Ay, ay!" quo' he, an' shook his head,
"It's e'en a lang, lang time indeed,
Sin' I began to nick the thread,

An' choke the breath:

Folk maun do something for their bread,
An' sae maun Death.

"Sax thousand years are near hand fled
Sin' I was to the butching bred,
An' monie a scheme in vain 's been laid,
To stap or scaur me;

Till ane Hornbook 's taen up the trade,
An' faith, he 'll waur' me.

8

"Ye ken Jock Hornbook i' the clachan,
Deil mak his king's-hood' in a spleuchan!10
He's grown sae weel acquaint wi' Buchan"
An' ither chaps,

The weans12 haud out their fingers laughin',
An' pouk my hips.

"See here's a scythe, and there's a dart,
They hae pierced monie a gallant heart;
But Doctor Hornbook, wi' his art
And cursed skill,

Has made them baith no worth a f-t,

Damn'd haet13 they'll kill!

1 Agreed.-2 An epidemical fever was then raging in that part of the country.-3 Many a road.-4 Butchering.-5 Stóp or scare.

6 This gentleman, Dr. Hornbook, is professionally a brother of the sovereign Order of the Ferula; but, by intuition and inspiration, is at once an apothecary, surgeon, and physician.

7 Worst, or defeat.-8 Hamlet, or village. A part of the entrails.-10 A tobacco pouch.-11 Buchan's Domestic Medicine.-12 Children.

13 An oath of negation; ¿. e. in Dr. Hornbook's opinion he has rendered my weapons harmless; they'll kill nobody.

""Twas but yestreen,1 nae farther gane,
I threw a noble throw at ane;

Wi' less I'm sure I've hundreds slain;
But Deil-ma-care,2

It just play'd dirl3 on the bane,
But did nae mair.

"Hornbook was by, wi' ready art,
And had sae fortified the part,
That when I looked to my dart,
It was sae blunt,

Fient haet' o 't wad hae pierced the heart
Of a kail-runt.5

"I drew my scythe in sic a fury,
I near had cowpit wi' my hurry,
But yet the bauld apothecary

Withstood the shock;
I might as well hae tried a quarry
O' hard whin" rock.

"Ev'n them he canna get attended,8
Altho' their face he ne'er had kenn'd it,
Just in a kail-blade and send it,

As soon's he smells 't,
Baith their disease, and what will mend it,
At once he tells 't.

"And then a' doctor's saws an' whittles,
Of a' dimensions, shapes, an' mettles,
A' kinds o' boxes, mugs, an' bottles,
He's sure to hae;

Their Latin names as fast he rattles
As A B C.

"Calces o' fossils, earth, and trees;
True sal-marinum o' the seas;
The farina of beans and pease,

5

He has 't in plenty;

1 Yesternight.-2 No matter!-3 A slight tremulous stroke.-4 An oath of negation. The stem of Colewort.-6 Tumbled.-7 The hard stone found in the Scottish hills; granite.

8 Those patients who cannot attend upon the doctor, or cannot be seen by him, must send their water in a vial, from the sight of which he pretends to know and cure their various diseases.

• Knives.