O Logie Kirk amang the braes,
  I’m thinkin’ o’ the merry days
Afore I trod thae weary ways
  That led me far frae Logie!

Fine do I mind when I was young
  Abune thy graves the mavis sung
An’ ilka birdie had a tongue
  To ca’ me back to Logie.

O Logie Kirk, tho’ aye the same
  The burn sings ae remembered name,
There’s ne’er a voice to cry “Come hame
  To bonnie Bess at Logie!”

Far, far awa’ the years decline
  That took the lassie wha was mine
An’ laid her sleepin’ lang, lang syne
  Amang the braes at Logie.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE DITCH

Aweel, I’m couped.  But wha’ could tell
  The road wad rin sae sair? 
I couldna gang yon pace mysel’,
  An’ I winna try nae mair!

There’s them wad coonsel me to stan’,
  But this is what I say: 
When Natur’s forces fecht wi’ man,
  Dod, he maun just give way!

If man’s nae framed to lift his fit
  Agin’ a nat’ral law,
I winna’ lift my heid, for it
  Wad dae nae guid ava’.

Puir worms are we; the poo’pit rings
  Ilk Sawbath wi’ the same,
Gin airth’s the place for sic-like things,
  I’m no sae far frae hame!

Yon’s guid plain raes’nin’; an’ forby,
  This pairish has nae sense,
There’s mony traiv’lin wad deny
  Natur and Providence;

For loud an’ bauld the leears wage
  On men like me their war,
Elected saints to thole their rage
  Is what they’re seekin’ for.

But tho’ a man wha’s drink’s his tea
  Their malice maun despise,
It’s no for naething, div ye see,
  That I’m sae sweir to rise!

THE LOST LICHT

(A Perthshire legend)

The weary, weary days gang by,
  The weary nichts they fa’,
I mauna rest, I canna lie
  Since my ain bairn’s awa’.

The soughing o’ the springtide breeze
  Abune her heid blaws sweet,
There’s nests amang the kirkyaird trees
  And gowans at her feet.

She gae’d awa’ when winds were hie,
  When the deein’ year was cauld,
An noo the young year seems to me
  A waur ane nor the auld.

And, bedded, ‘twixt the nicht an’ day,
  Yest’re’en, I couldna bide
For thinkin’, thinkin’ as I lay
  O’ the wean that lies outside.

O, mickle licht to me was gie’n
  To reach my bairn’s abode,
But heaven micht blast a mither’s een
  And her feet wad find the road.

The kirkyaird loan alang the brae
  Was choked wi’ brier and whin,
A’ i’ the dark the stanes were grey
  As wraiths when I gae’d in.

The wind cried frae the western airt
  Like warlock tongues at strife,
But the hand o’ fear hauds aff the he’rt
  That’s lost its care for life.

I sat me lang upon the green,
  A stanethraw frae the kirk,
And syne a licht shone dim between
  The shaws o’ yew and birk.