Page:History of John Cheap the chapman (2).pdf/13

 to which she answered, John Swine: I was thinking so, said I, he has such dirty fashions; but whether was yon his mother or his sister I lay with these two nights.

All that day I travelled the country west from Haddington but could get no meat; when I asked if they had any to sell, they told me, they never did sell any bread, and I found by sad experience, they had none to give for nothing. I came into a little country village, and went thro' it all, house after house, and could neither get bread nor ale to buy: at last I came into a poor weaver's house, and asked him, if he would lend me a hammer, Yes, said he, what are you going to do with it? Indeed, said I, I am going to knock out all my teeth with it, for I can get no bread to buy in all the country. for all the stores and stacks you have in it: what, said he, were you in the minister's? I know not, said I, does he keep an ale-house? O na, said he, he preaches every Sunday, an what does he preach, said I? iis [sic] it to harden your hearts? haud weel together? have no charity? hate strangers? hunger the poor? eat and drink all yourselves? better burst your bellies than give it to the beggars, or let good meat spoil? If your minister be as naughty as his people, I'm positive he'll drive a louse to London for the hide and tallow. Here I bought the weaver's dinner for two- pence, and then set out again, keeping my course westward. It being now night, I came to a farmer's house south from Dalkeith: the goodman being very civil, and desirous of news, I related the whole passages of the two days and nights by-past, whereat he was greatly diverted, and said, I was the first he heard of that ever that man gave quarters to before, because he was an elder of the parish. So the goodman and I fell so thick, that he ordered me to be laid on a shakedown-bed beyond the fire, where I