“No question, wretch! thy foot is on the door;
To be in hell, thou fool! is to be poor.
Wilt thou consent?”—But John, with many a sigh, 260
Refused, then sank beneath his stronger eye,
Who with a curse dismiss’d the fool that dared
Not join a venture which he might have shared.
The worthy Clerk then served a man in trade,
And was his friend and his companion made—
A sickly man, who sundry wares retail’d,
Till, while his trade increased, his spirit fail’d.