alf-penny in the pound. Some of my creditors said
it was owre meikle--that I had been simple and wronged mysel'.

"'I would wish to the utmost o' my power to be honest,' said I; 'and if I
hae wronged mysel', I hae saved my conscience. If there be naething else
left for me noo, as Burns says--

'Heaven be thankit! I can beg.'

"My business, hooever, had been entirely at a stand for the space o' sax
weeks. I had neither journeyman nor apprentice left. My looms, and the hale
apparatus connected wi' the concern, had been sold off, and I had naething
in the world but a few articles o' furniture, which a freend bought back
for me at the sale. I got the loan o' a loom, and in order to support my
wife and family, I had to sit down to drive the shuttle again. I had
wrought nane to speak o' for ten years before, and my hands were quite oot
o' use. I made but a puir job o' it. The first week I didna mak aboon
half-a-crown; and that was but a sma' sum for the support o' a wife and
half-a-dozen hungry bairns. Hooever, I was still as simple as ever; and
there wasna a wife in the countryside that was a bad payer, but brought her
web to Nicholas Middlemiss. I wrought late and early; but though I did my
utmost, I couldna keep my bairns' teeth gaun. Many a time it has wrung my
heart, when I hae heard them crying to their mother, clinging round her,
and pulling at her apron, saying--'Mother, gie's a piece!--Oh just a wee
bite, mother!'

"'O my darlings,' she used to say to them, 'dinna ask me for bread the noo.
I haena a morsel in the house, and hae na siller to buy meal. But yer
faither is aboot finished wi' the web, and ye shall hae plenty the nicht.'

"Then the bits o' dear creatures would hae come runnin' ben to me, and
asked--'Faither, when will the web be ready?'

"'Soon, soon, hinnies!' said I, half choked wi' grief and blind wi' tears;
'haud awa' oot and play yoursels!'

"For I couldna stand to see them yearning afore me, and to behold want,
like a gnawing worm, eating the flesh from their lovely cheeks. Then, when
I had went out wi' the web, Nancy would say to me--'Noo, Nicholas, remember
the situation we're in. There's neither food o' ae description nor anither
in the house, and ye see the last o' oor coals upon the fire. Therefore,
afore ye leave the web, see that ye get the money for the working o't.'

"Yet, scores o' times, even after such admonitions, hae I come hame without
a penny in my pocket. Ane put me aff wi