Nearing the End, pp.102-103.

[Anecdotes of Burns Contents]

THERE is a fine story touching the last day of the great minstrel. It was a week day, but the street, where he lived in Dumfries, was crowded with poor working men, many of them weeping, and when a stranger said to one of them in wonder – “What’s the matter?” he sobbed out, “Robbie Burns is deein’ sir – Robbie Burns is deein’.” And when one in the room with him drew the curtain against the sun, thinking it might hurt his eyes, he moaned, “Do not shut the sun out; I shall soon see him no more.”