Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 8.djvu/378

368 Neverout. Why, that's for all the world like the man, who swore he kept the same knife forty years, only he sometimes changed the haft, and sometimes the blade.

''Ld. Smart''. Well, Tom, to give the devil his due, thou art a right woman's man.

Col. Odd so! I have broke the hinge of my snuff box; I'm undone beside the loss.

Miss. Alack-a-day, colonel! I vow I had rather have found forty shillings.

Neverout. Why, colonel; all that I can say to comfort you, is, that you must mend it with a new one.

Col. What, miss! you can't laugh, but you must show your teeth.

Miss. I'm sure you show your teeth, when you can't bite: well, thus it must be, if we sell ale.

Neverout. Miss, you smell very sweet; I hope you don't carry perfumes.

Miss. Perfumes! No, sir; I'd have you to know, it is nothing but the grain of my skin.

Col. Tom, you have a good nose to make a poor man's sow.

''Ld. Sparkish''. So, ladies and gentlemen, methinks you are very witty upon one another: come, box it about; 'twill come to my father at last.

Col. Why, my lord, you see miss has no mercy; I wish she were married but I doubt the gray mare would prove the better horse.

Miss. Well, God forgive you for that wish.

''Ld. Sparkish''. Never fear him, miss.

Miss. What, my lord, do you think I was born in a wood, to be afraid of an owl? Ld.