Page:Comical transactions of Lothian Tom (5).pdf/17

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PART.IV.

9 Tom having now left his own native country, went into the county of Nor- thumberland, where he hired himself with an old miser of a farmer; and here he continued for several years, performing his duty in his service very well, though sometimes playing a roguish bite on those about him. His master had a very naughty custom that he would allow them no can- dle at night to see with when at supper. Tom one night sets himself next to his master, and as they were all about to fall on, Tom puts his spoon into the heart of the dish, where the crowdy was hottest, and claps a spoonful into his master’s mouth ; a pox on you for a rogue, cried his master, for my mouth is burnt: A pox on you for a mafster, says Tom, for you keep a house as dark as Purgatory, for I was going to my own mouth with that soup and missed the way, it being so dark; don’t think, master, that I am such big fool as to feed you, while I have a mouth of my own. So,- from that night that Tom burnt his master’s mouth with the hot crowdy, they always got a candle to shew them light at supper, for his master