BLITHE WAS SHE.

TUNE- Andro and his Cutty Gun.

The subject of these verses was Miss Euphemia Murray of Lintrose, a beautiful creature of eighteen, already distinguished by the sobriquet of the "Flower of Strathmore."

CHORUS.

BLITHE, blithe and merry was she,

Blithe was she but and ben: i. e. everywhere Blithe by the banks of Earn,

And blithe in Glenturit Glen.

By Auchtertyre grows the aik,

oak

On Yarrow banks the birken shaw; birch-woods

But Phemie was a bonnier lass

Than braes o' Yarrow ever saw.

Her looks were like a flower in May,
Her smile was like a simmer morn;

She tripped by the banks o' Earn,
As light's a bird upon a thorn.

Her bonny face it was as meek
As ony lamb upon a lea;

The evening sun was ne'er sae sweet
As was the blink o' Phemie's e'e.

The Highland hills I've wandered wide,
And o'er the lowlands I hae been ;
But Phemie was the blithest lass
That ever trod the dewy green.

Burns had taken up his residence with Mr. William Cruikshank, a master in the Edinburgh High School. Mr. Cruikshank had a daughter Janet, a young girl of budding loveliness, and much promise as a pianist. To her the poet was indebted for many pleasant hours, in listening to his favorite Scottish airs. He also employed her voice and instrument in enabling him to adapt new verses to old airs for the Scots Musical Museum. He gratefully celebrated his favorite, little Miss Jenny Cruikshank, in the two following pieces.

A ROSE-BUD by my early walk,
Adown a corn-enclosed bawk,1
Sae gently bent its thorny stalk,
All on a dewy morning.

1 An open space in a cornfield, generally a ridge left untilled.

Ere twice the shades o' dawn are fled,

In a' its crimson glory spread,

And drooping rich the dewy head,
It scents the early morning.

Within the bush, her covert nest,
A little linnet fondly prest,
The dew sat chilly on her breast

Sae early in the morning.

She soon shall see her tender brood,
The pride, the pleasure o' the wood,
Amang the fresh green leaves bedewed,
Awake the early morning.

So thou, dear bird, young Jenny fair!
On trembling string or vocal air,
Shall sweetly pay the tender care

guards

That tents thy early morning. So thou, sweet Rose-bud, young and gay, Shalt beauteous blaze upon the day, And bless the parent's evening ray

That watched thy early morning.

TO MISS CRUIKSHANK, A VERY YOUNG

LADY,

WRITTEN ON THE BLANK-LEAF OF A BOOK PRESENTED
TO HER BY THE AUTHOR.

BEAUTEOUS Rose-bud, young and
Blooming in thy early May,
Never mayst thou, lovely flower,
Chilly shrink in sleety shower;
Never Boreas' hoary path,
Never Eurus' poisonous breath,
Never baleful stellar lights,
Taint thee with untimely blights!
Never, never reptile thief
Riot on thy virgin leaf,

gay,

Nor even Sol too fiercely view
Thy bosom blushing still with dew!

Mayst thou long, sweet crimson gem,
Richly deck thy native stem :
Till some evening, sober, calm,
Dropping dews and breathing balm,
While all around the woodland rings,
And every bird thy requiem sings,
Thou, amid the dirgeful sound,

Shed thy dying honours round,

And resign to parent earth

The loveliest form she e'er gave birth.

WHERE BRAVING ANGRY WINTER'S

STORMS.

TUNE- Neil Gow's Lamentation for Abercairny.

The two following songs, in honor of Miss Margaret Chalmers, were designed for publication in the second volume of Johnson's Museum. Of the personal attractions of Miss Chalmers, it could at the utmost be said, as Burns did say, that they were above the medium. She was, however, a woman of spirit, talent, and boundless love of things literary.

WHERE, braving angry winter's storms,
The lofty Ochils rise,

Far in their shade my Peggy's charms
First blest my wondering eyes;
As one who by some savage stream
A lonely gem surveys,
Astonished, doubly marks its beam,
With art's most polished blaze.

Blest be the wild, sequestered shade,
And blest the day and hour,
Where Peggy's charms I first surveyed,
When first I felt their power!
The tyrant Death, with grim control,
May seize my fleeting breath;
But tearing Peggy from my soul
Must be a stronger death.