Page:Mad pranks of Tom Tram, son in law to Mother Winter.pdf/23

 joſtled him, ſaying, your noſe ſtands in my way; whereupon the other fellow with the great noſe, took his noſe in his hand, and held it to the other ſide, ſaying, A pox on thee, go and be hanged.

NCE there was a company of gypſies that came to a country-fellow high-way, and would needs tell him his fortune: amongſt other things, they bad him aſſure himſelf his worſt misfortunes were paſt, and that he would not be troubled with croſſes as he had been: ſo coming home, and having ſold the cow at the market, he look'd in his purſe for the money, thinking to have told it to his wife; but he found not ſo much as one croſs in his purſe; whereupon he remembered the words of the gypſies and ſaid, that the gypſies had ſaid true that he ſhould not be troubled with croſſes, and that they had picked his pocket, and leſt not a penny in his purſe. Whereupon his wife baſted and cudgelled him ſo foundly, that he began to perceive that a man that had a curſed wife ſhould never be without a croſs tho' he had never a penny in his purſe; and becauſe it was winter-time, he ſat a while by the fire-ſide, and after went to bed ſupperleſs and pennyleſs.