Page:Mad pranks of Tom Tram, son-in-law to Mother Winter (1).pdf/5

Rh could take no reſt; which made him cauſe one of his ſervants to bid them leave off ſinging. Tom Tram ſaid, That it was the mayor's good counſel that they ſhould ſing pſalms, and ſing they would, as long as they lived there. Which made the mayor bid the jailor turn them out of priſon, without paying their fees.

CHAP. III. How Tom ſerved his Hoſteſs, and a Tobacco Seller, being another of his Jests.

T happened that Tom was ſent on an errand forty miles from his abode, over heaths and plains, where having diſpatched his buſineſs, he chanced to be lodged in a room that opened into a yard, where his hosteſs kept many turkeys; which Tom ſeeing, he thruſts pins into two of their heads and in the night they died. The woman in the morning wondered how the fowls, ſhould come to die, Tom perſuaded her that there was a great ſickneſs where he dwelt amongſt all manner of fowls, and wiſhed his hoſteſs to fling them away, the which ſhe did. Tom watched where ſhe ſlung them, and when he took his leave of his hoſteſs, it was at ſuch a time when ſhe was buſy ſeting bread into the oven, ſo that he was ſure ſhe could not look after him. So he goes and wraps the turkeys in his coat, and away he runs; but finding his two turkeys