knots; no approaching the ladies' ruelles without the quota of
shoulder-knots. "That fellow," cries one, "has no soul: where is
his shoulder-knot?" {75} Our three brethren soon discovered their
want by sad experience, meeting in their walks with forty
mortifications and indignities. If they went to the playhouse, the
doorkeeper showed them into the twelve-penny gallery. If they
called a boat, says a waterman, "I am first sculler." If they
stepped into the "Rose" to take a bottle, the drawer would cry,
"Friend, we sell no ale." If they went to visit a lady, a footman
met them at the door with "Pray, send up your message." In this
unhappy case they went immediately to consult their father's will,
read it over and over, but not a word of the shoulder-knot. What
should they do? What temper should they find? Obedience was
absolutely necessary, and yet shoulder-knots appeared extremely
requisite. After much thought, one of the brothers, who happened to
be more book-learned than the other two, said he had found an
expedient. "It is true," said he, "there is nothing here in this
will, totidem verbis, making mention of shoulder-knots, but I dare
conjecture we may find them inclusive, or totidem syllabis." This
distinction was immediately approved by all; and so they fell again
to examine the will. But their evil star had so directed the matter
that the first syllable was not to be found in the whole writing;
upon which disappointment, he who found the former evasion took
heart, and said, "Brothers, there is yet hopes; for though we cannot
find them totidem verbis nor totidem syllabis, I dare engage we
shall make them out tertio modo or totidem literis." This discovery
was also highly commended, upon which they fell once more to the
scrutiny, and soon picked out S, H, O, U, L, D, E, R, when the same
planet, enemy to their repose, had wonderfully contrived that a K
was not to be found. Here was a weighty difficulty! But the