Duncan Gray cam here to woo, Ha, ha, the wooing o’t, On blythe Yule night when we were fu’, Ha, ha, the wooing o’t, Maggie coost her head fu’ high, Look’d asklent and unco skeigh, Gart poor Duncan stand abeigh: Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. * * * * * Time and chance are but a tide, Ha, ha, &c., Slighted love is sair to bide, Ha, ha, &c., Shall I like a fool, quoth he, For a haughty hizzie die? She may go to――France for me! Ha, ha, &c. * * * * * ROBERT BURNS. ―――― SAM SUMPH.[25] Sam Sumph cam’ here for Greek, Ha, ha, the Greeking o’t! Frae Dunnet Head he cam’ for Greek, Wi’ sair thirst for the Greeking o’t; Brains he had na unco much, His schooling was a crazy crutch, But like the crab he had a clutch, Ha, ha, the Greeking o’t! Latin Syntax vexed him sore, When he tried the Greeking o’t, For Cæsar stands at Homer’s door When folks try the Greeking o’t. _Quod_ and _ut_ he understood, At “speech direct” they called him good, But _qui_ with the subjunctive mood Was the crook in the lot at the Greeking o’t! One thing truth commands to tell, Ha, ha, the Greeking o’t! English he could hardly spell, But what’s that to the Greeking o’t? English fits the vulgar clan, The buying and the selling man, But for the learned the only plan Is a close grip at the Greeking o’t. How he wandered through the verb, It pains my tongue the speaking o’t, He said it was a bitter herb, When he tried the Greeking o’t. Wi’ mony a wrench and mony a screw, At last he warstled bravely through, All except a tense or two, When he tried the Greeking o’t! How he fared with ἣ and ἄν When he tried the Greeking o’t. Δὴ and γε, and all their clan, It’s weel worth the speaking o’t. These feckless dots of words, quo’ he. They are nae bigger than a flea, We’ll skip them ow’r, and let them be, They’ll nae be missed at the Greeking o’t! A’ the story for to tell, Were nae end to the speaking o’t, But this thing in the end befell, When he tried the Greeking o’t; Though his heart was free frae vice (Men are sometimes trapped like mice), They plucked him ance, they plucked him twice, When he tried the Greeking o’t! Sair cast doun was learned Sam At this end o’ the Greeking o’t; He could dae nae mair wi’ cram, At this stage o’ the Greeking o’t, But he was teugh as ony Scot, He was plucked, but yield would not, Sooner would he hang and rot, Than thus be balked at the Greeking o’t.