“Take that, my lad,” said the gentleman, tossing half-a-crown to Tom.
“Thanky, sir; when we meet again may you have no more wit than you have now.”
“How do you mean?”
“Not wit enough to keep your money, sir—that’s all!”
“I presume you think that I have not got much.”
“Which, sir; wit or money?”
“Wit, my lad.”
“Nay, sir, I think you have both: the first you purchased just now; and you would hardly have bought it, if you had not money to spare.”
“But I mean wit of my own.”
“No man has wit of his own; if he borrows it, it’s not his own; if he has it in himself, it’s mother wit, so it’s not his.”