THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 151 



fell to so high a contest about it, as none that 

 knows the faithfulness of one gypsy to another, 

 will easily believe ; only we that have lived these 

 last twenty years are certain that money has been 

 able to do much mischief. However, the gypsies 

 were too wise to go to law, and did therefore 

 choose their choice friends Rook and Shark, and 

 our late English Gusman, to be their arbitrators 

 and umpires. And so they left this honeysuckle 

 hedge, and went to tell fortunes and cheat, 

 and get more money and lodging in the next 

 village. 



When these were gone we heard as high a con- 

 tention amongst the beggars, whether it was easi- 

 est to rip a cloak or to unrip a cloak. One 

 beggar affirmed it was all one ; but that was denied 

 by asking her if doing and undoing were all one. 

 Then another said, 't was easiest to unrip a cloak, 

 for that was to let it alone ; but she was answered 

 by asking her how she unripped it if she let it 

 alone. And she confessed herself mistaken. 

 These and twenty such-like questions were pro- 

 posed with as much beggarly logic and earnest- 

 ness as was ever heard to proceed from the 

 mouth of the most pertinacious schismatic ; and 

 sometimes all the beggars, whose number was 

 neither more nor less than the poets' nine muses, 

 talked all together about this ripping and unrip- 

 ping, and so loud that not one heard what the 

 other said. But at last one beggar craved audi- 

 ence, and told them that old Father Clause, whom 



