114 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS ship for his new West Indian home. But his poems had attracted so much at* tention, and had been the cause of such commendation, that he was finally en- couraged to stay and enjoy some of the fruits of his genius, which the world was now beginning to discover. In November of the same year, encouraged by verbal praises and written commendations, some of them all the way from the literary centre of Edinburgh, he journeyed to that city, where he was received with great cordiality by many of the leading people, and urged to issue a second edition of his poems, which he did in April of the ensuing year. It was sold, like the first one, by subscription, and netted the author a much larger sum ; while it procured him fame, all through the country, as " The Ploughman Poet." During this year he took several tours in different parts of his native Scot- land, in company with congenial spirits, once going a very little way into Eng- land. He was received gladly and hospitably everywhere by those who had read and admired his poems. His journals and letters during that period, probably upon the whole the most happy in his life, teem with accounts of courtesies, hospitalities, merry-makings, and gallantries, which he mentions as taking place all along the route. His poetic pen never seems to have remained idle very long at a time ; and albums, fly-leaves, note-books, letters, and sometimes window- panes, received in turn his quaint and fiery verses. In October he returned to Edinburgh, where he remained for some time, filling social engagements, entangling himself in certain affairs of the heart, and endeavoring to get a settlement with his publisher, whom he considered as owing him the immediate payment of a considerable sum of money. He also assisted a compiler in making collections of old Scottish songs, and in furnishing new words to old airs. It is a singular fact, that while Burns was willing to earn money with the regular edition of his poems, he steadfastly declined remuneration for his songs, claiming that he did the work for love. With the natural Scotch thrift of his fathers, he soon decided that he must have some more substantial occupation than that of a poet, and he applied for and received a position in the Excise. To add to his income he, in 1 788, leased a farm on the river Nith, about twelve miles from Dumfries. The place con- tained one hundred acres, and was stated to be " more the choice of a poet than of a farmer." Its fine situation and beautiful views compensated, perhaps, in Burns's mind, for its sterility. Here he brought his wife, Jean Armour, whom he had married under such un- pleasant circumstances a few years before, and to whom he was drawn again as much by pity as by love, her parents having turned her out of doors. It is hardly necessary to say that the parents received him with open arms, now that he came with some signs of prosperity ; and he no doubt entered anew upon married life with their sincere, if somewhat tardy, blessing. Upon this farm of " Ellisland " Burns lived three years, and during that time he had three occupations farmer, poet, and excise officer. In the last-named he was in the habit of riding two hundred miles per week, to different points
