have
been no clerk, for he scarce wrote a legible hand; he was so far from
being able to write sense, that he could not make sense of what others
wrote; he was so far from understanding good English, that he could not
spell good English; to be out of all business was his delight, and he
would stand leaning against a post for half-an-hour together, with a
pipe in his mouth, with all the tranquillity in the world, smoking, like
Dryden's countryman, that whistled as he went for want of thought, and
this even when his family was, as it were, starving, that little he had
wasting, and that we were all bleeding to death; he not knowing, and as
little considering, where to get another shilling when the last was
spent.

This being his temper, and the extent of his capacity, I confess I did
not see so much loss in his parting with me as at first I thought I did;
though it was hard and cruel to the last degree in him, not giving me
the least notice of his design; and indeed, that which I was most
astonished at was, that seeing he must certainly have intended this
excursion some few moments at least before he put it in practice, yet he
did not come and take what little stock of money we had left, or at
least a share of it, to bear his expense for a little while; but he did
not; and I am morally certain he had not five guineas with him in the
world when he went away. All that I could come to the knowledge of about
him was, that he left his hunting-horn, which he called the French horn,
in the stable, and his hunting-saddle, went away in a handsome
furniture, as they call it, which he used sometimes to travel with,
having an embroidered housing, a case of pistols, and other things
belonging to them; and one of his servants had another saddle with
pistols, though plain, and the other a long gun; so that they did not go
out as sportsmen, but rather as travellers; what part of the world they
went to I never heard for many years.

As I have said, I sent to his relations, but they sent me short and
surly answers; nor did any one of them offer to come to see me, or to
see the children, or so much as to inquire after them, well perceiving
that I was in a condition that was likely to be soon troublesome to
them. But it was no time now to dally with them or with the world; I
left off sending to them, and went myself among them, laid my
circumstances open to them, told them my whole case, and the condition I
was reduced to, begged they woul