he lived.

This kind and unexpected offer was so welcome to poor Dickory, that
without any farther consideration, he got a pen and ink and writ a note,
and in a very handsome and submissive manner returned him thanks for his
favour, assuring him he would do his best to continue and improve it; and
that he would be ready to wait upon him whenever he should be pleased to
command.

To shorten the account as much as possible, all things were concluded to
their mutual satisfaction, and in about a fortnight's time they set
forward for Wales, where Dickory, notwithstanding his dumbness, behaved
himself with so much diligence and affability, that he not only gained
the love of the family where he lived, but of everybody round him.

In this station he continued till the death of his master, which happened
about twenty years afterwards; in all which time, as has been confirmed
by several of the family, he was never observed to be any ways disguised
by drinking, or to be guilty of any of the follies and irregularities
incident to servants in gentlemen's houses. On the contrary, when he had
any spare time, his constant custom was to retire with some good book
into a private place within call, and there employ himself in reading,
and then writing down his observations upon what he read.

After the death of his master, whose loss afflicted him to the last
degree, one Mrs. Mary Mordant, a gentlewoman of great virtue and piety,
and a very good fortune, took him into her service, and carried him with
her, first to Bath, and then to Bristol, where, after a lingering
distemper, which continued for about four years, she died likewise.

Upon the loss of his mistress, Dickory grew again exceeding melancholy
and disconsolate; at length, reflecting that death is but a common debt
which all mortals owe to nature, and must be paid sooner or later, he
became a little better satisfied, and so determines to get together what
he had saved in his service, and then to return to his native country,
and there finish his life in privacy and retirement.

Having been, as has been mentioned, about twenty-four years a servant,
and having, in the interim, received two legacies, viz., one of thirty
pounds, left him by his master, and another of fifteen pounds by his
mistress, and being always very frugal, he had got by him in the whole
upwards of sixty pounds. This, thinks he, with prudent management, will
be enough to support me as long as I live, and