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Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745

"A Tale of a Tub"


They both unanimously entered upon this great work, looking
sometimes on their coats and sometimes on the will. Martin laid the
first hand; at one twitch brought off a large handful of points, and
with a second pull stripped away ten dozen yards of fringe. But
when he had gone thus far he demurred a while. He knew very well
there yet remained a great deal more to be done; however, the first
heat being over, his violence began to cool, and he resolved to
proceed more moderately in the rest of the work, having already very
narrowly escaped a swinging rent in pulling off the points, which
being tagged with silver (as we have observed before), the judicious
workman had with much sagacity double sewn to preserve them from
falling. Resolving therefore to rid his coat of a huge quantity of
gold lace, he picked up the stitches with much caution and
diligently gleaned out all the loose threads as he went, which
proved to be a work of time. Then he fell about the embroidered
Indian figures of men, women, and children, against which, as you
have heard in its due place, their father's testament was extremely
exact and severe.


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