Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850–1894). A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods. 1913.

VII. The Blast—1875

IT’S rainin’. Weet’s the gairden sod,

Weet the lang roads whaur gangrels plod—

A maist unceevil thing o’ God

In mid July—

If ye’ll just curse the sneckdraw, dod!

An’ sae wull I!

He’s a braw place in Heev’n, ye ken,

An’ lea’s us puir, forjaskit men

Clamjamfried in the but and ben

He ca’s the earth—

A wee bit inconvenient den

No muckle worth;

An’ whiles, at orra times, keeks out,

Sees what puir mankind are about;

An’ if He can, I’ve little doubt,

Upsets their plans;

He hates a’ mankind, brainch and root,

And a’ that’s man’s.

An’ whiles, whan they tak heart again,

An’ life i’ the sun looks braw an’ plain,

Doun comes a jaw o’ droukin’ rain

Upon their honours—

God sends a spate outower the plain,

Or mebbe thun’ers.

Lord safe us, life’s an unco thing!

Simmer an’ Winter, Yule an’ Spring,

The damned, dour-heartit seasons bring

A feck o’ trouble.

I wadnae try’t to be a king—

No, nor for double.

But since we’re in it, willy-nilly,

We maun be watchfü’, wise an’ skilly,

An’ no mind ony ither billy,

Lassie nor God.

But drink—that’s my best counsel till ’e:

Sae tak the nod.