Page:Modern Literature Volume 3 (1804).djvu/101

 *cupations, with gossipping and gadding, defamation, and what she calls dress, pretty well employ her time. No doubt, her happy state may partly arise from religion; not but that a cordial, known by the name of gin, contributes its aid. Mrs. Nicknack is no less dexterous than her husband in fishing out presents. She is a very zealous friend, and will stick at no assertion, true or untrue, in recommending the brethren; and sometimes, indeed, she has got into scrapes, by recommending that stupid dog behind: he is a near relation of hers, a fellow who undertakes to print, without being able to read. The old lady herself is a most furious democrat, ''abuses the king'', and one of the ablest ministers that the world ever beheld, the bishops, and all constituted authorities. On that score, she might deserve to be apprehended, were the ravings of an old wo