Blincoe hired a warehouse and lived in lodgings. In the year 1819, on Sunday, the 27th. of June, he happened to be, with several other persons, at the christening of a neighbour’s child, where several females were present. An acquaintance of Mester Blincoe’s (no longer poor Blincoe,) a jolly butcher, began to jest and jeer him, as to his living single. There was a particular female friend present, whose years, though not approaching old age, outnumbered Blincoe’s, and the guests ran their jokes upon her, and some of the company said, Blincoe, get married to-morrow, and then we’ll have a good wedding, as well as a christening, to-day. Upon which Blincoe, leering a little sideways at the lady, said, “Well, if Martha will have me, I’ll take her and marry her to-morrow.” She, demurely, said “Yes.” Then, said Blincoe, though taken unawares, now, if you’ll stick to your word, “I will.” She then said, “I’ll not run from mine, if you don’t.” Hearing this, there was a great shout, and when it had subsided, the butcher offered to bet a leg of mutton, that Blincoe would not get married on Monday, the _28th. of June_, and others betted on the same side, when Blincoe determined to win the bets, and a wife in the bargain. Blincoe said to his comrades, “Well, that I may not be disappointed. I’ll even go to see for a license to-night.” Two of the party went to see all was fair. When Blincoe had got half-way, being fearful of a _hoax_ by Martha, he hit on the device of holding back, telling her he could not get the license without her presence, and when she agreed to go, then still more securely to prevent his being laughed at, he said, “I have not money enough in my pocket, will you, Martha, lend me a couple of pounds?” In an instant she produced that sum, giving it to Blincoe, and they proceeded. Blincoe was so bashful he neither took her hand nor saluted her lips; but, accompanied by two of the persons who had laid wagers, went to the house direct, of the very celebrated, though not _very reverend Joshua Brookes_, lately deceased. The next morning they went in a coach from his lodgings in Bank-Top, and were married in the Old Church! Blincoe won his bets and his wife! They have lived together with as great a share of conjugal tranquillity, as falls to the lot of many, who are deemed happy couples, and he has ever since kept upon the advance in worldly prosperity. He has lived to see his tyrannical master brought to adverse fortune, to a state of comparative indigence, and, on his family, the visitation of calamities, so awful, that it looked as if the avenging power of retributive justice had laid its iron hand on him and them. In how short a time Blincoe’s career will verify the prediction of the old sybil of Chapel-a-Frith remains to be seen; but it is in the compass of probability, that he may, in the meridian of his life, be carried as high, by the wheel of fortune, as the days of his infancy and youth, he was cast low!!