Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 3).pdf/32

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her nimble moods, and in humour for such a contest—and she and Dr. Slop both fairly started together—there is no man living who had seen the bag with all that Obadiah had done to it,—and known likewise, the great speed the goddess can make when she thinks proper, who would have had the least doubt remaining in his mind—which of the two would have carried off the prize. My mother, madam, had been delivered sooner than the green bag infallibly—at least by twenty knots.—Sport of small accidents, Tristram Shandy! that thou art, and ever will be! had that trial been made for thee, and it was fifty to one but it had,—thy affairs had not been so depress'd—(at least by the depression of thy nose) as they have been; nor had the fortunes of thy house and the occasions of making them, which have so often presented themselves in thecourse