Even the nodes, so puzzling, of the moon; But nearing now the Mull they met the gale Right in their teeth: and should the fuel fail? Thinking of her, he grew a little pale, But bravely she the terrors, miseries, took: And met him with a sweet courageous look: Once, at the worst, unto his side she drew, And said a little tremulously too, ‘If we must die, please let me come to you.’ I know not by what change of wind or tide, Heading the Mull, they gained the eastern side, But stiller now, and sunny e’en it grew; Arran’s high peaks unmantled to the view; While to the north, far seen from left to right, The Highland range, extended snowy white. Now in the Clyde, he asked, what would be thought, In Glasgow, of the company she brought: ‘You know,’ he said, ‘how I desire to stay; We’ve played at strangers for so long a day, But for a while I yet would go away.’ She said, O no, indeed they must not part. Her father’s sister had a kindly heart. ‘I’ll tell her all, and O, when you she sees, I think she’ll not be difficult to please.’ Landed at Glasgow, quickly they espied Macfarlane, grocer, by the river side: To greet her niece the woman joyful ran, But looked with wonder on the tall young man Into the house the women went and talked, He with the grocer in the doorway walked. He told him he was looking for a set Of lodgings: had he any he could let? The man was called to council with his wife; They took the thing as what will be in life, Half in a kind, half in a worldly way; They said, the lassie might play out her play. The gentleman should have the second floor, At thirty shillings, for a week or more. Some days in this obscurity he stayed, Happy with her, and some inquiry made (For friends he found) and did his best to see, What hope of getting pupils there would be. This must he do, ’twas evident, ’twas clear, Marry and seek a humble maintenance here. Himself he had a hundred pounds a year. To this plain business he would bend his life, And find his joy in children and in wife, A wife so good, so tender, and so true, Mother to be of glorious children too. Half to excuse his present lawless way, He to the grocer happened once to say Marriage would cost him more than others dear, Cost him, indeed, three hundred pounds a-year. ‘’Deed,’ said the man, ‘a heavy price, no doubt, For a bit form that one can do without.’ And asked some questions, pertinent and plain, Exacter information to obtain; He took a little trouble to explain. The College Audit now, to last at least Three weeks, ere ending with the College Feast, He must attend, a tedious, dull affair, But he, as junior Bursar, must be there. Three weeks, however, quickly would be fled, And then he’d come,—he didn’t say to wed. With plans of which he nothing yet would say, Preoccupied upon the parting day, He seemed a little absent and distrait;