Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/496

460 house.) "Come, haste; O how the tester trembles in my pocket!" She obeyed; and they got home just time enough to escape a heavy shower. "Thank God," said the dean, "I have saved my money. Here, you fellow, (to the servant) carry this sixpence to the lame old man that sells gingerbread at the corner, because he tries to do something, and does not beg."

Mrs. Pilkington was showed into a little street-parlour, in which was Mrs. Brent, his housekeeper. "Here," says he, "Mrs. Brent, take care of this child, while I take my walk out within doors." The dean then ran up the great stairs, down one pair of backstairs, up another, in so violent a manner, that Mrs. Pilkington could not help expressing her uneasiness to Mrs. Brent, lest he should fall, and be hurted. Mrs. Brent said, it was a customary exercise with him, when the weather did not permit him to walk abroad.

Mrs. Brent then told Mrs. Pilkington of the dean's charity; of his giving about half of his yearly income in private pensions to decayed families; and keeping five hundred pounds in the constant service of industrious poor, which he lent out five pounds at a time, and took the payment back at two shillings a week; which, she observed, did them more service than if he gave it to them entirely, as it obliged them to work, and at the same time kept up this, charitable fund for the assistance of many. "You cannot imagine," said she, "what numbers of poor tradesmen, who have even wanted proper tools to carry on their work, have, by this small loan, been put into a prosperous way, and brought up their " families