She
said he was such a beggarly rascal that he had ne'er a shirt
to his back, and had the impudence to shock her sight by shewing
his bare posteriors, for which act of indelicacy he deserved to
be set in the stocks. Mrs Winifred Jenkins confirmed the assertion,
with respect to his nakedness, observing, at the same time, that
he had a skin as fair as alabaster.
'This is a heinous offence, indeed (cried my uncle) let us hear
what the fellow has to say in his own vindication.' He was
accordingly summoned, and made his appearance, which was equally
queer and pathetic. He seemed to be about twenty years of age, of
a middling size, with bandy legs, stooping shoulders, high
forehead, sandy locks, pinking eyes, flat nose, and long chin --
but his complexion was of a sickly yellow; his looks denoted
famine, and the rags that he wore could hardly conceal what
decency requires to be covered -- My uncle, having surveyed him
attentively, said, with an ironical expression in his
countenance, 'An't you ashamed, fellow, to ride postilion without
a shirt to cover your backside from the view of the ladies in the
coach?' 'Yes, I am, an please your noble honour (answered the
man) but necessity has no law, as the saying is -- And more than
that, it was an accident.
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