There was, however, happily no occasion to go home in order to appease his hunger; he had but to join the men and women in the barley-field: there was sure to be enough, for Miss Lammie was at the head of the commissariat.
When he had had as much milk-porridge as he could eat, and a good slice of swack (elastic) cheese, with a cap (wooden bowl) of ale, all of which he consumed as if the good of them lay in the haste of their appropriation, he hurried back to the cottage, and sat there reading The Arabian Nights, till the sun went down in the orange-hued west, and the gloamin' came, and with it the reapers, John and Elspet Hewson, and their son George, to their supper and early bed.
John was a cheerful, rough, Roman-nosed, black-eyed man, who took snuff largely, and was not careful to remove the traces of the habit.

He had a loud voice, and an original way of regarding things, which, with his vivacity, made every remark sound like the proclamation of a discovery.
'Are ye there, Robert ?' said he, as he entered.

Robert rose, absorbed and silent.
'He's been here a' day, readin' like a colliginer,' said Jessie.
'What are ye readin' sae eident (diligent), man ?' asked John.
'A buik o' stories, here,' answered Robert, carelessly, shy of being supposed so much engrossed with them as he really was.
I should never expect much of a young poet who was not rather ashamed of the distinction which yet he chiefly coveted.

There is a modesty in all young delight.

It is wild and shy, and would hide itself, like a boy's or maiden's first love, from the gaze of the people.