Page:Auld Robin Gray (2).pdf/5

better days, and if it may be said he bore up wi’ a strong fortitude, it maun be confessed, that tho she tholed ill the depravations to which their straitened means compelled them. When a high speerited careless young lassie, she had married for love (as the saying is), against the will o’ her relations, that were a’ wealthy and well to do in the world; and, when she could afford to keep up her degree, and brush by them in a gown of French silk, to the full as guid as their ain, every thing was weel eneuch. It was otherwise, however, when year by year obleeged her to dispense with some wee bit article o' accustomed finery, and a back-going fortune estranged faces that had often smiled around her mair plentiful table. True it is, that with the changes o' life so we change; and that with the turns o' fortune we are oure apt to turn. Her temper began to sour; she took to liking an ill tale against her neighbour, and, as the family purse began to grow lighter, so in proportion did her wounded pride begin to show itself. Wad she petition her friends for help? Na—na—that wad have been as much as owning she had been in error, and they in the right. Sooner wad she perish of cauld and hunger; or be forced away into stranger districts, to beg, from door to door, a crust of bread, and a drink o’ water, from the hands of the charitable.