’Tis a Point of Decency and Discretion for a Man to Comply with the
Common Customs of the Place, where he Lives, over and above the Rules
of Good Neighborhood and Society. So that the Old Hunks here was well
enough serv’d to be trick’d out of a whole Hog for the Saving of his
Puddings: And it was so much the better too, that he was of the Plot to
the Fooling of Himself, and had his own Jest turned upon him in Earnest:
For he was caught in his own Snare, and met withal, as we say, in his
own Kind. And we may make this further Use on’t, That an Ill-Natur’d
Thrift is next Door to Squandring: He was Cheated, and he was Laugh’d at,
and he Deserv’d both; for he made himself a Party to the Picking of his
own Pocket, and the very Sham that he designed upon his Neighbours was
turn’d upon Himself. The Frolick was Pleasant and Pertinent enough, but
the Conscience of the Case is another Question; though there’s this to
be said for’t, that it was but one Fraud paid with another, and that he
Himself went half way in’t by his own Consent. ’Twas with the _Man_ and
the _Hog_, as with the _Boy_ and the _Wolf_; he would be Crying _a Wolf,
a Wolf_, when there was none, and then could not be Believed when there
was.