ny birken shaw!--
For this is no my ain life,
And I peak and pine away
Wi' the thochts o' hame, and the young flow'rs
I' the glad green month o' May.

I used to wauk in the morning
Wi' the loud sang o' the lark,
And the whistling o' the ploughmen lads
As they gaed to their wark;
I used to weir in the young lambs
Frae the tod and the roaring stream;
But the warld is changed, and a' thing now
To me seems like a dream.

There are busy crowds around me
On ilka lang dull street;
Yet, though sae mony surround me
I kenna ane I meet.
And I think on kind, kent faces,
And o' blythe and cheery days,
When I wander'd out, wi' our ain folk,
Out-owre the simmer braes.

Wae's me, for my heart is breaking!
I think on my brithers sma',
And on my sister greeting,
When I came fra hame awa
And oh! how my mither sobbi,
As she shook me by the hand;
When I left the door o' our auld house,
To come to this stranger land;

There's nae place like our ain hame;
Oh, I wish that I was there!--
There's nae hame like our ain hame
To be met wi' ony where!--
And oh! that I were back again
To our farm and fields so green;
And heard the tongues o' my ain folk,
And was what I hae been!

That's poor Mungo's poem; which I and James Batter, and the rest, think
excellent, and not far short of Robert Burns himself, had he been spared.
Some may judge otherwise, out of bad taste or ill nature; but I would
just thank them to write a better at their leisure.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO--THE JUNE JAUNT WITH PETER FARREL

After Tammie Bodkin had been working with me on the board for more than
four years in the capacity of foresman, superintending the workshop
department, together with the conduct and conversation of Joe Breeky,
Walter Cuff, and Jack Thorl, my three bounden apprentices, I thought I
might lippen him awee to try his hand in the shaping line, especially
with the clothes of such of our customers as I knew were not very nice,
provided they got enough of cutting from the Manchester manufacture, and
room to shake themselves in. The upshot, however, proved to a moral
certainty, that such a length of tether is not chancey for youth, and
that a master cannot be too much on the head of his own business.

It was in the pleasant month of June, som