Even  from  his  earliest  years  Robert  Burns  encountered  in  a  very
real  and  tangible  fashion  the  grim  problem  of  poverty.  He  was  in
very  deed  one  of  that  vast  army  of  singers  who  "  learn  in  sorrow
what  they  teach  in  song."  Whilst  he  was  still  young  his  father
rented  a  larger  farm  from  Mr.  Ferguson  of  Doonholm.  For  a  year
or  two  the  world  dealt  smoothly  with  William  BuVness,  and  it  seemed
indeed  as  if  the  family  were  destined  to  prosper  within  their  little
homestead  at  Mount  Oliphant.  Bat  reverses  swiftly  came,  and  soon
the  struggling  family  were  plunged  headlong  into  the  grim  abyss  of
poverty  which  they  so  much  dreaded.  The  battle  with  misfortune
then  began  in  terrible  earnest.  The  rack-rented  tenant  and  his-
family  were  soon  to  learn  how  powerful  a  weapon  modern  landlordism
is  for  extracting  from  "  puir  tenant  bodies,  scant  o'  cash,"  the
combined  fruits  of  their  long  summer's  earnings.  Father,  mother,
aod    the    two  brothers,  Gilbert   and    Robert,   toiled    like    drudges,.
t


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658  T/ie  IVestminster  Review.  Dec

even  denying  themselves  many  real  necessities  of  life,  for  the
Barnesses  were  a  prond  family,  and  would  ask  alms  of  no  man.
