Well have we sped, exulting Grabble shouts, For all is sure, when cautious Johnny doubts-- The client nods, uncertain what is meant, And therefore fearful to withhold assent. Forth, with instructions goes the post that eve, And crafty Grabble chuckles in his sleeve-- Instructions for a bill, which agents wile Before the term’s last day may hope to file. How vain that hope!--the dusty papers lie For eighteen months within the draftsman’s eye. To all complaints he beats the ready chime:-- “More weighty matters had beguiled his time-- “Injunctions, that would not admit delay, “Answers, demurrers--and the motion day, “All marr’d his wishes to effect dispatch, “Though failing not each leisure hour to snatch. “Vacation comes, and then he will be able “To clear with ease his now o’erloaded table.”[4] Vacation past;--the agent calls again, And finds the draftsman just returned from Spain. The soot-clad parcel lies unopened still, Knaw’d by the rats, that hunger else would kill-- At last ’tis done, and then it must be sent To country down for final settlement. Then queries on the margin rise, like apes,-- And here and there a long hiatus gapes. Facts change like mortals in a fairy tale, And from a herring fancy coins a whale. Then crowds of thrice repeated words express What might be done in twenty thousand less;-- The whole one precious jargon, fitted well To serve for fewel in a lawyer’s hell. But what says Grabble?--as the folios mount, He must demand some money on account,[5] To pay the counsel and the court their fees, Lest justice’ wheels be clogg’d for want of grease. The client deep into his pocket dives; To part with cash his inmost bowel rives; With deep-drawn sighs he counts each stiver o’er, And deems the law a most infernal bore. What gall’d already? not so quick, my friend, Or rage will turn to madness in the end. Who takes a voyage but expects to be Annoy’d at first by sickness on the sea? Should weak impatience make him growl and weep, His friends would laugh, and bid him shun the deep. Aye, shun, but how? why look before you leap. When once embark’d, no more can wisdom say; Endure the billows, bluster as they may.