Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

78 . Epitaph for James Smith

LAMENT him, Mauchline husbands a’,

He aften did assist ye;

For had ye staid hale weeks awa,

Your wives they ne’er had miss’d ye.

Ye Mauchline bairns, as on ye press

To school in bands thegither,

O tread ye lightly on his grass,—

Perhaps he was your father!