him to depart, or drink it up, which he thought ⟨fine⟩. And thus he went away laughing The Tinker, who was at first very angry, but being cheered up with a cordial dram, and so made sensible that all this was but a frolick, and that for the future, their master would be his good friend if he behaved civilly. He was pacified, and so putting on his clothes, he beat the road for a gang of merry fellows of his acquaintance, informing them, there was a hogshead of March beer at Sir John's, which they all might be partakers of if they chused; they came joyfully, and had it brought into the court-yard, in black jacks--After they had drunk it, the Tinker told them the cause of its being given away, was because there was a swine that had unexpectedly fallen into it; but on further enquiry he told them all the circumstances which set them a laughing till their sides were almost crackt. Afterwards they had plenty of victuals sent them, and the Tinker being thus made free of the cellar, was ordered to call at the house, and have victuals and drink as often as he came that way. And so they departed, spreading the fame of Sir John in every place they came, as a bountiful benefactor: singing as they went, the following song:
Good house-keeping, they say, is fled,
Or hawks or hounds, and whores have rid her;
But we say she's not fled nor dead,
Who have so plentiful beheld her.
Long may he flourish in this nation,
And get it praised as of old;
That we by following the French fashion,
May not make charity grow cold.
