fter a
minute inquiry into all the circumstances of the fray, thought proper
to reward him for the unnecessary trouble he had given himself, with
the severest flogging he had ever received in his life time. Thus
mortified and disgraced, the unfortunate _Stephen_ resolved upon an
elopement; but, being ashamed to return to his parents, he rambled
through the fields and woods, and scrambled over hedges and ditches,
until at length having torn his clothes to rags, and being almost ready
to perish with hunger, he eagerly listed himself into a gang of
gypsies, and supped very heartily upon the remains of a roasted cat.
The intolerable hardships he suffered, and the coarse fare he was
obliged to put up with in this new situation, together with the
frequent bangs and thumps which he received from the younger part of
his strolling comrades, who were as quarrelsome and mischievous as
himself, but abundantly more robust, soon broke his heart; so that he
died in a barn, and was buried, like a beggar, at the expense of a
little country parish." While the Bramin was concluding the history of
Master _Churl_, my son _Jackey_, whose temper was rather too fiery,
looked very sheepish; which his sister _Betsey_ observing, and easily
guessing the cause of it, she desired him with a good natured smile,
when we were leaving the room, to think on poor _Stephen_, and be sure
to take warning.

CHAP. V.

_The comical and mortifying Transmigration of little Monsieur_ FRIBBLE
_into the Body of a Monkey._

After we had taken our leave of Master _Churl_, we were conducted into
the apartment of Mr. _Pug_, a chattering young monkey, who, as soon as
he saw us whipt his little hat under his arm in a crack, and seating
himself upon his backside, welcomed each of us into the room by several
ceremonious nods, which were intended to supply the place of a bow, and
were accompanied by such a noisy affected grin, that it was impossible
for us to forbear laughing--"This contemptible animal, said Mr.
_Wiseman_, is inhabited by the little soul of the late Master _Billy
Fribble_, a young gentleman of French extraction, whose friends came
and settled in the country about fifty years ago. His play fellows
dignified him with the humorous title of _the little Monsieur_, not so
much on account of his diminutive stature, as for that trifling and
finical behaviour which distinguishes the least respectable, though, by
many thoughtless persons, the most admired