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when be had performed it.” Both parties being agreed, the doctor sent his man for a joiner and a coffin, as soon as the one; had brought the other, up stairs they went, for the doctor would not see his patient before he had got his tools ready. When every thing was in order, in goes the doctor and the lady, the rest tarried without till called for.
No sooner had the doctor cast an eye upon his fallen patient, but he presently calls out to the lady, “Lord, Madam, what mean you to send for a physician to a dead man?, For shame, keep him not above ground any longer. Upon my word, madam, he has been dead so long, that he stinks again, and if you don’t bury him quickly, the very scent of his corps will breed a plague in your family” “I have had a coffin in the home some time, replied the lady, but was loth to have him buried so soon, for fear he should come to life again.” “By all means, says the doctor, let it be brought in, and order him to be nailed up with all expedition.” “Pray doctor, says the lady, do you stay a little in the room for fear the rats should gnaw the corps, and I’ll step and order some of my servants to bring in the coffin presently.” The patient hard all this and was still too humoursome to break his silence; by and by comes the lady, and
