Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/203

them, unsight, unseen. I like the young man he has settled upon well enough, but I think I ought to have a valuable consideration for my consent. He wants my poor little farm, because it makes a nook in his park-wall: ye may e'en tell him, he has mair than he makes good use of: he gangs up and down drinking, roaring, and quarrelling, through all the country markets, making foolish bargains in his cups, which he repents when he is sober; like a thriftless wretch, spending the goods and gear that his forefathers won with the sweat of their brows; light come, light go, he cares not a farthing. But why should I stand surety for his contracts; the little I have is free, and I can call it my awn; hame's hame, let it be never so hamely. I ken him well enough, he could never abide me, and when he has his ends, he'll e'en use me as he did before. I am sure I shall be treated like a poor drudge: I shall be set to tend the bairns, dearn the hose, and mend the linen. Then there's no living with that old carline his mother; she rails at Jack, and Jack's an honester man than any of her kin: I shall be plagued with her spells and her Pater-nosters, and silly old-world ceremonies: I mun never pair my nails on a Friday, nor begin a journey on Childermas-day, and I mun stand becking and binging, as I gang out and into the hall. Tell him he may e'en gang his get; I'll have nothing to do with him; I'll stay, like the poor country mouse, in my awn habitation." So Peg talked; but for all that, by the interposition of good friends, and by many a bonny thing that was sent, and many more that were promised Peg, the matter was concluded, and Peg taken into the house upon certain