Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/258

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THE HISTORY OF

John wisely stifled his resentment, and told the company, that in a little time he should give them law, or something better.]


All. Law! law! sir, by all means. What is twenty-two poor years toward the finishing a lawsuit? For the love of God, more law, sir[1]!

J. Bull. Prepare your demands; how many years more of law do you want, that I may order my affairs accordingly? In the mean while, farewell.





CHAP. XVII.


How John Bull found all his family in an uproar at home[2].


NIC. FROG, who thought of nothing but carrying John to the market, and there disposing of him as his own proper goods, was mad to find that John thought himself now of age to look after his own affairs. He resolved to traverse this new project, and to make him uneasy in his own family. He had corrupted or deluded most of his servants into the most extravagant conceits in the world; that their master was run mad, and wore a dagger in one pocket, and poison in the other; that he had sold his wife and children to Lewis, disinherited his heir, and was going to settle his estate upon a parish boy; that if they did not look after their master, he would do some

  1. Clamours for continuing the war.
  2. Clamours about the danger of the succession.
very