Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/172

166 South will be esquire South still; fickle, proud, and ungrateful. If he behaves himself so, when he depends on us for his daily bread, can any man say, what he will do when he is got above the world?

D. D. And would you lose the honour of so noble and generous an undertaking? Would you rather accept this scandalous composition, and trust that old rogue, Lewis Baboon?

Mrs. B. Look you, friend Diego, if we law it on, till Lewis turns honest, I am afraid our credit will run low at Blackwell-hall. I wish every man had his own; but I still say, that lord Strutt's money shines as bright, and chinks as well, as esquire South's. I don't know any other hold, that we tradesmen have of these great folks, but their interest; buy dear and sell cheap, and I'll warrant ye you will keep your customer. The worst is, that lord Strutt's servants have got such a haunt about that old rogue's shop, that it will cost us many a firkin of strong beer to bring them back again; and the longer they are in a bad road, the harder it will be to get them out of it.

D. D. But poor Frog! what has he done? On my conscience, if there be an honest, sincere man in the world, it is that Frog.

Mrs. B. I think, I need not tell you how much Frog has been obliged to our family from his childhood; he carries his head high now, but he had never been the man he is, without our help. Ever since the commencement of this lawsuit, it has been the business of Hocus, in sharing our expenses, to plead for Frog. "Poor Frog," says he, "is in hard "circum-