I
understand thee perfectly, answered I: if thou takest a wrong step
in this affair he will cudgel thee to death. Well, a minute is but a
minute, and if it saves a fellow-creature a drubbing, it shall not be
set down as ill spent. He was eating the stem of an artichoke as
this discourse went on, and, in the little peevish contentions of nature
betwixt hunger and unsavouriness, had dropped it out of his
mouth half a dozen times, and picked it up again. God help thee,
Jack! said I, thou hast a bitter breakfast on't, and many a bitter
blow, I fear, for its wages--'tis all, all bitterness to thee, whatever
life is to others. And now thy mouth, if one knew the truth of it, is
as bitter, I dare say, as soot (for he had cast aside the stem), and
thou hast not a friend, perhaps, in all this world that will give thee a
macaroon. In saying this I pulled out a paper of 'em, which I had
just purchased, and gave him one; and, at this moment that I am
telling it, my heart smites me that there was more of pleasantry in
the conceit of seeing how an ass would eat a macaroon, than of
benevolence in giving him one, which presided in the act.
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