“There was another who said that hunger was his daily food.”
“He must have kept such a table as Duke Humphrey,” quoth William; “I should not have liked to dine with him.”
“Then there was Crates,” said the persevering boy; “he had a good estate and sold it and threw the money into the sea, saying, ‘away ye paltry cares! I will drown you, that you may not drown me.’”
“I should like to know,” quoth William, “what the overseers said to that chap, when he applied to the parish for support.”
“They sent him off to Bedlam, I suppose,” said the Mother, “it was the fit place for him, poor creature.”
“And when Aristippus set out upon a journey he bade his servants throw away all their money, that they might travel the better. Why they must have begged their way, and it cannot be right to beg if people are not brought to it by misfortune. And there were some who thought there was no God. I am sure they were fools, for the Bible says so.”
“Well Daniel,” said Guy, “thou hast studied the end of the Dictionary to some purpose!”
“And the Bible too, Master Guy!” said Dinah,—her countenance brightening with joy at her son's concluding remark.
“It's the best part of the book,” said the boy, replying to his schoolmaster; “there are more entertaining and surprizing things there than I ever read in any other place, except in my Father's book about Pantagruel.”