THE CURTAIN FALLS
SCENE V
Burns’s Farm at Ellisland, six miles from Dumfries. An August evening in 1791, more than four years later.
It is the general kitchen-living-room at the farm. It is fine and warm, and the door to the straw-littered yard is open. A girl is clearing away the evening meal, which has been shared by the family and the farm-servants. A young labourer is sitting by the window mending a bridle. By the fireplace, Jean Armour, now Mrs. Burns, is sewing and singing.
O wert thou in the cauld blast
On yonder lea, on yonder lea,
My plaidie to the angry airt
I’d shelter thee, I’d shelter thee:
Or did Misfortune’s bitter storms