Maybe so it wull mak' us see hoo it came aboot that he grew mean, as the English are like to be fond o' calling him.
Many and many the canny Scot who's made a great place for himsel' in the world was born and brocht up in a wee village in a glen.

He'd see poverty all aboot him frae the day his een were opened.

It's a hard life that's lived in many a Scottish village.

A grand life, aye--ne'er think I'm not meaning that.

I lived hard masel', when I was a bit laddie, but I'd no gie up those memories for ought I could ha' had as a rich man's son.