Now, As I Could Not Tell Whether My Travelling Companion Was To Be
Trusted Or Not, I Soon Took An Opportunity To Let Him Know That I
Was Poor, And Much Distressed.
To confirm this, I told him of the
inhumanity with which I had just been treated at the inn, where they
refused a poor wanderer so much as a place to lay his head, or even
a morsel of bread for his money.
My companion somewhat excused the people by saying that the house
was really full of people who had been at work in the neighbourhood,
and now slept there. But that they had refused me a bit of bread he
certainly could not justify. As we went along, other topics of
conversation were started, and among other things he asked me where
I came from that day.
I answered from Nettlebed, and added, that I had attended divine
service there that morning.
"As you probably passed through Dorchester this afternoon," said he,
"you might have heard me preach also, had you come into the church
there, for that is my curacy, from which I am just come, and am now
returning to Oxford." "So you are a clergyman;" said I, quite
overjoyed that, in a dark night, I had met a companion on the road,
who was of the same profession as myself. "And I, also," said I,
"am a preacher of the gospel, though not of this country." And now
I thought it right to give him to understand, that it was not, as I
had before intimated, out of absolute poverty, but with a view of
becoming better acquainted with men and manners, that I thus
travelled on foot.
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