Works

The following lines were written at the request of a little girl, who said she would recite them at a Sunday School entertainment. Prof. J. S. Blackie of Edinburgh, in a letter acknowledging the receipt of my book, said he cons...

We have here a sight as fair
As bonnie Doon or banks of Ayr,
Like modest worth meandering slow
The quiet waters gently flow,
Rose, thistle, shamrock, all combine,
Around the maple leaf to twine,...

The following lines were read at the festival after the stone had been laid by Grand Master Col. Moffat, of a church on the Culloden road, with Masonic honors.


In this quiet spot this day of June,...

At London Thames is a broad stream,
Which was the scene of a sad theme,
A fragile steamer there did play,
O'ercrowded on a Queen's Birthday,
While all on board was bright and gay,...

In barren district you may meet
Small fertile spot doth grow fine wheat,
There you may find the choicest fruits,
And great, round, smooth and solid roots.

But in conditions such as these...

Step, step, step, 'tis her lover's walk,
She knows his step as well's his talk;
He is the favorite of her choice,
So his step's familiar as his voice.

Step, step, step, she now is wed,...

"We had a dream which was not all a dream." - Byron.


I laid me down one day in June,
It was late long afternoon,
A very sultry summer's eve,
Such times the senses oft deceive,...

The first winter which I did spend
In Canada was with a friend,
And when the snow had passed away
Quite early in the month of May.

Friend started off for a barn raising,...

Let others sing their favourite lay,
From early morn till close of day,
More useful themes engage our pen,
We sing the lay of our good hen.

For she doth lay each morn an egg,...

The engineer who drives the train,
From scalds he oft doth suffer pain,
And they are more noble scars,
Than hirelings gain in foreign wars.

Our hero's name should live forever,...

(Life of the early settlers.)


Canada hath wealthy yeomen
Whose fathers overcome the foemen,
The enemy they boldly slew
Was mighty forests they did hew,
And where they burned heaps of slain...

In summer time we roam o'er dingle,
But winter draws us round the ingle,
Why do you remain thus single,
When love would make two hearts tingle,
Pray, tell me why my dearest wingle,...

We love cold water as it flows from the fountain,
Which nature hath brewed alone in the mountain;
In the wild woods and in the rocky dell,
Where man hath not been but the deer loves to dwell;...

Where it was announced ten days previous that the cereus would bloom, August, 1888.


We own we felt a little curious,
To see the rare night blooming cereus,
And as if 'twas divine anointed,...

Having received a letter from a gentleman glorying in his typewriter we replied as follows:


You glory in your typewriter,
And its virtues you rehearse,
But we prefer the old inditer,...

A pleasing sight to-day we see,
Four churches joined in harmony,
There difference was but trivial,
But strove each other to outrival.
In friendship now they do unite,
And Satan only they do fight,...

The South of Scotland did produce
Heroic Wallace and the Bruce,
And even time will never blot
The record of her Burns and Scott,
And Tanahill renowned bard,
And that sweet songster Ettrick Shepherd.

The middle branch of Thames doth flow
O'er pebble bed and it doth glow
And sparkle like silver in the sun,
As it through pasture lands doth run.

In dam is ample water stored,...

This good woman when in this life,
She was kind mother and good wife,
And managed her household with care,
She and her husband happy pair.

And her name it will long be praised...

His identity was discovered by finding the maker's name on the suit he wore and by sending a strip of the cloth to the maker in Montreal.

A young man's body long it lay
In bottom of Toronto Bay,...