weight and in tale; even your milkwoman and your nursery-maid have a
fellow feeling; your tailor, instead of shreds, cabbages whole yards
of cloth; besides, leaving such long scores, and not going to market
with ready money forces us to take bad ware of the tradesmen at
their own price. You have not posted your books these ten years.
How is it possible for a man of business to keep his affairs even in
the world at this rate? Pray God this Hocus be honest; would to God
you would look over his bills, and see how matters stand between
Frog and you. Prodigious sums are spent in this lawsuit, and more
must be borrowed of scriveners and usurers at heavy interest.
Besides, my dear, let me beg of you to lay aside that wild project
of leaving your business to turn lawyer, for which, let me tell you,
Nature never designed you. Believe me, these rogues do but flatter,
that they may pick your pocket; observe what a parcel of hungry
ragged fellows live by your cause; to be sure they will never make
an end of it. I foresee this haunt you have got about the courts
will one day or another bring your family to beggary. Consider, my
dear, how indecent it is to abandon your shop and follow
pettifoggers; the habit is so strong upon you, that there is hardly
a plea between two country esquires, about a barren acre upon a
common, but you draw yourself in as bail, surety, or solicitor."
John heard her all this while with patience, till she pricked his
maggot, and touched him in the tender point. Then he broke out into
a violent passion: "What, I not fit for a lawyer? let me tell you,
my clod-pated relations spoiled the greatest genius in the world
when they bred me a mechanic. Lord Strutt, and his old rogue of a
grandsire, have found to their cost that I can manage a lawsuit as
well as another." "I don't deny what you say," replied Mrs. Bull,
"nor do I call in question your parts; but, I say, it does not suit
with your circumstances; you and your predecessors have lived in