Then the wife, that’s as fond o’ her pleasure as he, Brings out a black tea-pot and maks a drap tea; And they sit, and they soss, and they haud a cabal, And ye’d think that their slaistrie wad never divaul. By their wee spunk o’ ingle they keep up the bother, Each jeerin’, misca’in’, and scauldin’ the tother; While the bairns sit out by, wi cauld kale, i’ the dark— Nae gude comes to them o’ the customer-wark! III. [Sidenote: produce proportionate want and misery in the exhaustion of their resources.] [Sidenote: In the absence of _customer-wark_, the weaver flies to his _dernier resort_, the loom of reserve, on which he works a web for private sale, but which his funds will scarce allow him to carry on upon his own foundation.] [Sidenote: The implements of luxury thrown by neglected.] When the siller grows scarce and the spleuchan gets toom, The wabster gangs back to his treddles and loom, Where he jows the day lang on some wab o’ his ain, That’ll bring in nae cash for a twalmonth or twain; Then the pipe lies exhaustit o’ a but its stink, And the pourie is washed and set by on the bink; There neglected they’ll lie, like auld yads in a park, Till Heaven shall neist send some customer-wark! IV. [Sidenote: Description of a process of starvation, which reduces the weaver from his natural and customary meagreness to a perfect anatomization.] [Sidenote: A simile picked up in trout fishing.] [Sidenote: The weaver saved, in his extremity, by a supply of his darling _customer-wark_.] Then the puir starvin’ wabster grows thinner and thinner, On a ’tatoe for breakfast, a ’tatoe for dinner, And vanishes veesibly, day after day, Just like the auld moon whan she eelies away. Clean purged out he looks, like a worm amang fog, And his face is the colour o’ sweens in a cogue. At last, when grown hungry and gaunt as a shark, He revives wi’ a mouthfu’ o’ customer-wark. V. [Sidenote: Arrival of a customer.] [Sidenote: Familiar condescension of a farmer’s wife in visiting a weaver’s.] [Sidenote: Disappointment on finding the hopeless state of the _cutty_.] [Sidenote: Trait of the excitement produced in the household by the arrival of _customer-wark_.] A branksome gudewife, frae the neist farmer toon, Comes in wi’ a bundle, and clanks hersel’ down, “How’s a’ wi’ ye the day, Bell? Ha’ ye ought i’ the pipe? Come rax me a stapper? the cutty I’ll rype! I maun see the gudeman—bring him ben, hinney Jess! Tut!! the pipe’s fu’ o’ naithing but fusionless asse!” The wife ne’er lets on that she hears the remark, But cries, “Jess! do ye hear, deme?—_It’s customer-wark!!!_” VI. [Sidenote: Transport of the weaver himself at hearing the news.] [Sidenote: His behaviour towards the customer.] [Sidenote: Politeness and flattery.]