Page:Wanton Tom, or, The merry tricks of Tom Stitch the tailor.pdf/3



3                    would not have her's burried in forgetful ness, and such a one as his flourish. Her husband, to save contention, yielding to                    let her name be joined to his, and so called Stitch Needle. Soon after this she lived a more chaste life than heretofore, so that she proved with child; but her husband in half a                    year after died. He being dead, and she very poor, could not tell where to go for relief, having scarcely any friend living that would regard her. The time soon slipped away, and the day of her delivery drew nigh; but she not thinking it so near as it was, neglected the getting such necessaries as one in her con- dition required; so one day unexpectedly, she fell into travil, no body being with her but only a maid, who first ran to call the neighbours, and then the midwife; but being delivered before she came, a poor neighbour had dressed the babe, which was a boy. Then a minister was sent for to                    baptize him, who having orders, named him Thomas Stitch; and a while after the woman asked the mother what she had got to give the child? She answered, with a                    sigh, that she had nothing in the house but a porringer of butter'd cabbage, which she had eat part of that day for her dinner.