These books excited
little Robert so much that if ever a recruiting sergeant came to
his village, he would strut up and down in raptures after the
drum and bagpipe, and long to be tall enough to be a soldier.
The story of Wallace, too, awoke in his heart a love of Scotland
and all things Scottish, which remained with him his whole life
through. At times he would steal away by himself to read the
brave, sad story, and weep over the hard fate of his hero. And
as he was in the Wallace country he wandered near and far
exploring every spot where his hero might have been.
After a year of two the second schoolmaster went away as the
other had done. Then all the schooling the Burns children had
was from their father in the long winter evenings after the farm
work for the day was over.
And so the years went on, the family at Mount Oliphant living a
hard and sparing life. For years they never knew what it was to
have meat for dinner, yet when Robert was thirteen his father
managed to send him and Gilbert week about to a school two or
three miles away.
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