Page:Joe Miller's jests (1).pdf/14

 (14) earneſtly that ſhe might have a boy; at laſt they had a boy, who when he came to man's eſtate proved but ſimple: Thou prayedſt ſo long for a boy, ſaid her huſband, that at laſt thou haſt got one, who will be a boy as long as he lives.

A country clergyman meeting a neighbour who never came to church, although an old fellow about ſixty, he gave him ſome reproof on that account, and aſked him if he ever read at home? No replied the clown. I cannot read: I dare ſay, ſaid the parſon, you don't know who made you? Not I, in truth, cried the countryman. A little boy coming by at the ſame time, who made you, child ? ſaid the parſon. God. ſir, anſwered the boy. Why, look you there, quoth the clergyman, are you not aſhamed to hear a child five or fix years old tell me who made him, when you, who are ſo old a man cannot? Ah ! faid the countryman it is no wonder that he ſhould remember; he was made but the other day, and it is a long while, nearer, ſince I was made.

After the fire of London, there was an act to regulate the buildings of the city, every houſe was to be three ſtories high, and there was to be no balconies backwards : A Glouceſter gentleman a man of great wit and humour, juſt after this act paſſed, going along the ſtreet, and ſeeing a little crooked woman on the other ſide of the way, he runs over to her in great haſte: Lord, madam. ſaid he, how dare you walk thus publicly in the ſtreet! And why not, pray, ſir? anſwered the little woman. Becauſe, replied he, you are built