It woke him up out of his trance.

Well, he had to go and bust clean out with a bang; and that stopped his goin' over there, and it stopped his poetry, but I reckon he's begun to get pretty fair pay for what he lost.

I guess a good many young men have had to get over worries like his; they got to lose SOMETHING if they're goin' to keep ahead o' the procession nowadays--and it kind o' looks to me, mamma, like Bibbs might keep quite a considerable long way ahead.

Why, a year from now I'll bet you he won't know there ever WAS such a thing as poetry! And ain't he funny?
He wanted to stick to the shop so's he could 'think'! What he meant was, think about something useless.

Well, I guess he's keepin' his mind pretty occupied the other way these days.