Two _Men_ and a _Halter_.
A Poor Rogue that had got the Devil into his Pocket, and not One Cross
in the World to drive him out again, found upon Mature Consideration,
that he had no Choice before him, but either to Hang or Starve; for,
says he, I have neither Cash, Credit, nor Friends, to keep Life and Soul
together. He bethought himself a while upon the Matter, and so Resolv’d
rather of the Two to go to Heaven in a String. Upon this, he immediately
provides himself a Halter; fits the Noose, and pitches upon the Place of
Execution; but as he was driving a Hook into an Old Wall to Fasten the
Cord to, Down comes a Great Stone that was Loose, and a Pot of Mony along
with it. The Fellow presently throws away the _Halter_, Takes the Gold by
Content, without either Weighing or Counting it, and so away he Scours
with the Purchase. He was no sooner gone, but in comes the Man that had
hid the Mony, to give his Pot a Visit: He finds the Birds flown it seems,
and _Marrying and Hanging_, they say, _go by Destiny_. The last Comer,
in fine, succeeds to the Rope of his Predecessor, and very fairly Hangs
himself, with this Comfort in the Conclusion, That Providence had sav’d
him the Charge of a _Halter_.
The MORAL.
_Where there’s Mony in the Case, ’tis Forty to One but some Body or other
goes to the Devil for’t._