coach-hire, treating of witnesses, etc. "Verily," says John, "there
are a prodigious number of learned words in this law; what a pretty
science it is!" "Ay but, husband, you have paid for every syllable
and letter of these fine words. Bless me, what immense sums are at
the bottom of the account!" John spent several weeks in looking
over his bills, and, by comparing and stating his accounts, he
discovered that, besides the extravagance of every article, he had
been egregiously cheated; that he had paid for counsel that were
never fee'd, for writs that were never drawn, for dinners that were
never dressed, and journeys that were never made; in short, that the
tradesmen, lawyers, and Frog had agreed to throw the burden of the
lawsuit upon his shoulders.



CHAPTER XII. How John grew angry, and resolved to accept a
Composition; and what Methods were practised by the Lawyers for
keeping him from it.*

Well might the learned Daniel Burgess say, "That a lawsuit is a suit
for life. He that sows his grain upon marble will have many a
hungry belly before harvest." This John felt by woeful experience.
John's cause was a good milch cow, and many a man subsisted his
family out of it. However, John began to think it high time to look
about him. He had a cousin in the country, one Sir Roger Bold,
whose predecessors had been bred up to the law, and knew as much of
it as anybody; but having left off the profession for some time,
they took great pleasure in compounding lawsuits among their
neighbours, for which they were the aversion of the gentlemen of the
long robe, and at perpetual war with all the country attorneys.