Page:Wanton Tom, or, The merry history of Tom Stitch the tailor.pdf/2

 THE

MERRY HISTORY

OF

TOM STITCH THE TAILOR.

CHAP. I.

Of Tom Stitch's Birth and Parentage.

IN Thread-needle-ſtreet, at the upper end of Thimble Alley, lived one William Stitch, by profeſsion, a taylor, who was married to Nan Needle:

Whom many men did often thread When they could gain her to their bed.

She keeping company with many men to gain cuſtom, at length ſhe gained the French diſeaſe; which increasing, the burn her husband's thread. This being known among their customers, they uſed to jee her and ſay, She was a hot Needle indeed to burn her husband's thread. And when her husband asked them for work, they anſwered No no ; Do you think we will le you be our tailor who fews with a ho needle and burning thread?

In a ſhort time after they were married there aroſe a great contention between him and his wife concerning their names; ſh