Dickory Cronke | Page 5

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 so I'll e'en lay aside
all thoughts of future business, and make the best of my way to
Cornwall, and there find out some safe and solitary retreat, where I may
have liberty to meditate and make my melancholy observations upon
the several occurrences of human life.
This resolution prevailed so far, that no time was let slip to get
everything in readiness to go with the first ship. As to his money, he
always kept that locked up by him, unless he sometimes lent it to a
friend without interest, for he had a mortal hatred to all sorts of usury
or extortion. His books, of which he had a considerable quantity, and
some of them very good ones, together with his other equipage, he got
packed up, that nothing might be wanting against the first opportunity.
In a few days he heard of a vessel bound to Padstow, the very port he
wished to go to, being within four or five miles of the place where he
was born. When he came thither, which was in less than a week, his
first business was to inquire after the state of his family. It was some
time before he could get any information of them, until an old man that
knew his father and mother, and remembered they had a son was born
dumb, recollected him, and after a great deal of difficulty, made him
understand that all his family except his youngest sister were dead, and
that she was a widow, and lived at a little town called St. Helen's, about
ten miles farther in the country.
This doleful news, we must imagine, must be extremely shocking, and
add a new sting to his former affliction; and here it was that he began to
exercise the philosopher, and to demonstrate himself both a wise and a
good man. All these things, thinks he, are the will of Providence, and
must not be disputed; and so he bore up under them with an entire
resignation, resolving that, as soon as he could find a place where he
might deposit his trunk and boxes with safety, he would go to St.

Helen's in quest of his sister.
How his sister and he met, and how transported they were to see each
other after so long an interval, I think is not very material. It is enough
for the present purpose that Dickory soon recollected his sister, and she
him; and after a great many endearing tokens of love and tenderness, he
wrote to her, telling her that he believed Providence had bestowed on
him as much as would support him as long as he lived, and