Page:Mad pranks of Tom Tram, son in law to Mother Winter.pdf/3

 he takes the pot, ſtrips off his doublet, and with a carter's whip he lays on them as hard as he could drive. The people who ſaw him do it, told his mother what he had done; which made the old woman cry out, O! that young knave will be hanged. So in that tone home ſhe goes. Her ſon ſeeing her, come running and foaming at the mouth to meet her, and told her, that he had broke both the pots: which made the old woman to ſay. O thou villain! what haſt thou done? O mother, quoth he, you told me it was proclaimed, That all thoſe that would not work, muſt be whipp'd; and I have often ſeen our pots work ſo hard, that they have foamed ſo much at the mouth, that they befoouled all the houſe where they ſtood; but theſe two lazy knaves, ſaid he told me; That they did never work, nor never meant to work; and therefore, quoth he, I have whipped them to death, to teach the reſt of their fellows to work, or never look me in the face again.

PON a time Mother Winter ſent her ſon Tom into the market, to buy her a penny-worth of ſoap and gave him twelve-