[Sidenote: Affected solicitude about his customer’s domestic welfare, while his whole soul is in reality entranced in the contemplation of _customer-wark_.] Having gotten her lick i’ the lug, Jess gangs ben, And tells her toom father about the God-sen’; Transported, he through the shop-door pops his head, Like a ghaist glowrin’ out frae the gates o’ the dead. Then, wi’ a great fraise he salutes the gudewife,— Says he ne’er saw her lookin’ sae weel i’ his life,— Spiers for the gudeman and the bairns at Glendeark,— While his thoughts a’ the time are on customer-wark! VII. [Sidenote: Makes himself immediately very busy in the delightful details prefatory to his employment.] [Sidenote: Praises the wife’s handiwork, for courtesy’s sake, but does not approve of the bounds which her niggardliness has imposed upon the possibility of _cabbage_.] [Sidenote: Rapture of the children, which is much more disinterested, and not less heartfelt, than the weaver’s own.] Then, wi’ the gudewife, he claps down on the floor, And they turn and they count the hale yarn o’er and o’er: He rooses her spinning, but canyells like daft ’Bout the length o’ her warp and the scrimp o’ her waft. At last it’s a’ settled, and promised bedeen To be ready on Friday or Fursday at e’en; And the bairns they rin out, wi’ a great skirlin’ bark, To tell that their dad’s got some customer-wark! VIII. [Sidenote: Recovery from starvation.] [Sidenote: Revival of former domestic comfort.] Then it’s pleasant to see, by the vera neist ouk, How the wabster thowes out to his natural bouk, How he freshens a thought on his diet o’ brose, And a wee tait o’ colour comes back to his nose! The cutty’s new-mountit, and everything’s snug, And Bell’s tongue disna sing half sae loud i’ his lug; Abstracted and happy, and jum as a Turk, He sits thinking on nothing but customer-wark! IX. [Sidenote: Concluding benediction upon customer-wark, and recapitulation of its virtues.] Oh, customer-wark! thou sublime movin’ spring! It’s you gars the heart o’ the wabster to sing! An ’twerena for you, how puir were his cheer, Ae meltith a day, and twa blasts i’ the year: It’s you that provides him the bit, brat, and beet, And maks the twa ends o’ the year sweetly meet, That pits meat in his barrel and meal in his ark! My blessings gang wi’ ye, dear customer-wark! CHAPTER X. =The Monastery.= A VILLAGE ANTIQUARY. (_Captain Clutterbuck._)