I'm almost done! I certainly should be able to finish by Thanksgiving now.
Today's word is "cerecloth" which is "a waxed cloth typically used for wrapping a corpse" (definition from The New Oxford American Dictionary). Pepys, however, uses it to wrap his foot when it's painful.
Today I have two quotes for you which both relate to gambling, something Pepys comments on quite often. In both he seems to have insightful things to say on the subject, which is why I liked these quotes.
"...it is strange to see how people of this poor rank, that look as if they had not bread to put in their mouths, shall bet three or four pounds [this calculates to between $500 and $700 in today's money] at one bet, and lose it, and yet bet as much the next battle (so they call every match of two cocks), so that one of them will lose L10 or L20 at a meeting."
In this second quote, Pepys is at a tavern where there is gambling going on. He writes,
"And so I, having enough for once, refusing to venture, though Brisband pressed me hard, and tempted me with saying that no man was ever known to lose the first time, the devil being too cunning to discourage a gamester."
I particularly liked that last line: "The devil being too cunning to discourage a gamester." Apparently "beginner's luck" is not a new concept!
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