...retentive memory, a stubborn, sturdy tomcthing in my disposition, and an enthusiastic idiot-piety. ... In my infant and boyish days, too, I owed much to an old maid of my mother's, remarkable for her ignorance, credulity, and superstition,' who had, ' I suppose,...

...disposition, and an enthusiastic idiot-piety. I say " idiot-piety," because I was then but a child. Though I cost the schoolmaster some thrashings, I made an excellent English scholar; and against the years of ten or eleven, I was absolutely a critic in substantives, verbs, and particles....

...apprehension, and not afraid to study when knowledge was to be the reward. Burns himself writes: " Though it cost the schoolmaster some thrashings, I...was a critic in substantives, verbs, and particles." Some chance visitor to the home of Burns has reported that he found the family at their frugal meal,...

...retentive memory, a stubborn, sturdy something in my disposition, and an enthusiastic idiot-piety. ... In my infant and boyish days, too, I owed much to an old maid of my mother's, remarkable for her ignorance, credulity, and superstition,' who had, ' I suppose,...

...disposition, and an -enthusiastic idiot-piety. I say " idiet-pitty," because I was then but a .child. Though I cost the schoolmaster some thrashings, I made an excellent English scholar; and against the years of ten or eleven, I was absolutely a critic in substantives, verbs and panicles....

...Robert had a propensity of that kind." " Though it cost the schoolmaster some thrashings," says Burns, " I made an excellent English scholar; and by the time...and particles. In my infant and boyish days, too, I owe much to an old woman who resided in the family, remarkable for her ignorance, credulity, and superstition....

...Robert had a propensity of that kind." " Though it cost the schoolmaster some thrashings," says Burns, " I made an excellent English scholar; and by the time...and particles. In my infant and boyish days, too, I owe much to an old woman who resided in the family, remarkable for her ignorance, credulity, and superstition....

...earlier period, than is generally thought."* Burns's way of putting the same fact is characteristic, " Though it cost the schoolmaster some thrashings, I...time I was ten or eleven years of age, I was a critic 1 Letter to Mr. Walker of Dublin, dated London, Feb. 22, 1799, Currie (op. ci«.), pp. 86-90. in substantives,...

...earlier period, than is generally thought."' Burns's way of putting the same fact is characteristic, " Though it cost the schoolmaster some thrashings, I...time I was ten or eleven years of age, I was a critic 1 Letter to Mr. Walker of Dublin, dated London, Feb. 22, 1799, Currie (op. eft.), pp. 86-9U. in substantives,...

...thirtieth. He tells us that he was by no means a favorite with anybody ; that though it cost the master some thrashings, " I made an excellent English scholar,...was a critic in substantives, verbs, and particles." Also we are told that in the family resided a certain old woman — Jenny Wilson by name, as research...