Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 3).pdf/31

 was obstretical,—scrip-tical,—squirtical, papistical,—and as far as the coach-horse was concerned in it,—caball-istical—and only partly musical;—Obadiah made no scruple of availing himself of the first expedient which offered;—so taking hold of the bag and instruments, and gripeing them hard together with one hand, and with the finger and thumb of the other, putting the end of the hat-band betwixt his teeth, and then slipping his hand down to the middle of it,—he tied and cross-tied them all fast together from one end to the other (as you would cord a trunk) with such a multiplicity of round-abouts and intricate cross turns, with a hard knot at every intersection or point where the strings met,—that Dr. Slop must have had three fifths of Job's patience at least to have unloosed them. I think in my conscience, that had been in one of