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Fiction

Notes each other: she is Joseph’s beloved, Fanny Goodwill, who set out to find Joseph when she
heard of his unfortunate encounter with the Ruffians.
The Justice of the Peace is negligent and is about to commit Adams and Fanny to prison
without giving their case much thought when suddenly a bystander recognizes Adams and
vouches for him as a clergyman and a gentleman. The Justice readily reverses himself and
dismisses the charges against Adams and Fanny, though the assailant has already slipped
away and will not be held accountable. Soon Adams and Fanny depart for the next inn, where
they expect to meet Joseph.
Joseph and Fanny have a joyous reunion at the inn, and Joseph wishes to get married then and
there; both Mr. Adams and Fanny, however, prefer a more patient approach. In the morning
the companions discover that they have another inn bill that they cannot pay, so Adams goes
off in search of the wealthy parson of the parish. Parson Trulliber, who spends most of his
time tending his hogs rather than tending souls, reacts badly to Adams’s request for charity.
Adams returns to the inn with nothing to show for his efforts, but fortunately a generous
Pedlar hears of the travelers’ predicament and loans Adams the money he needs.
After a couple more miles on the road, the travelers encounter a gregarious Squire who offers
them generous hospitality and the use of his coach but then retracts these offers at the last
minute. Adams discusses this strange behavior with the innkeeper, who tells him about the
Squire’s long history of making false promises.
Walking on after nightfall, the companions encounter a group of spectral lights that Mr.
Adams takes to be ghosts but that turn out later to be the lanterns of sheep-stealers. The
companions flee the scene and find accommodations at the home of a family named Wilson.
After the women have retired for the evening, Mr. Adams and Joseph sit up to hear Mr.
Wilson tell his life story, which is approximately the story of a “rake’s progress” redeemed by
the love of a good woman. Wilson also mentions that since moving from London to the
country, he and his wife have lost their eldest son to gypsy abduction.
The travelers, who are quite won over by the Wilson family and their simple country life,
depart in the morning. As they walk along, Mr. Adams and Joseph discuss Wilson’s biography
and debate the origins of human virtue and vice. Eventually they stop to take a meal, and
while they are resting, a pack of hunting dogs comes upon them, annihilates a defenseless
hare, and then attacks the sleeping Mr. Adams. Joseph and his cudgel come to the parson’s
defense, laying waste to the pack of hounds. The owner of the hounds, a sadistic Squire whom
Fielding labels a “Hunter of Men,” is at first inclined to be angry about the damage to his
dogs, but as soon as he sees the lovely Fanny he changes his plans and invites the companions
to his house for dinner.
The Hunter of Men and his retinue of grotesques taunt Mr. Adams throughout dinner, prompting
the parson to fetch Joseph and Fanny from the kitchen and leave the house. The Hunter sends
his servants after them with orders to abduct Fanny, whom he has been planning all along to
debauch. The servants find the companions at an inn the next morning, and after another epic
battle they succeed in tying Adams and Joseph to a bedpost and making off with Fanny.
Luckily for Fanny, however, a group of Lady Booby’s servants come along, recognize the
milkmaid, and rescue her from her captors. They then proceed to the inn where Adams and
Joseph are tied up, and Joseph gets to take out his frustrations on Fanny’s primary captor
before they all set off again. Mr. Adams rides in a coach with the obnoxious Peter Pounce, who
so insults the parson that he eventually gets out of the coach and walks beside Joseph and
Fanny’s horse for the last mile of the journey.
The companions finally arrive home in Lady Booby’s parish, and Lady Booby herself arrives
shortly thereafter. At church on Sunday she hears Mr. Adams announce the wedding banns
of Joseph and Fanny, and later in the day she summons the parson for a browbeating. She
claims to oppose the marriage of the young lovers on the grounds that they will raise a family
of beggars in the parish. When Adams refuses to cooperate with Lady Booby’s efforts to keep
the lovers apart, Lady Booby summons a lawyer named Scout, who trumps up a legal pretext
for preventing the marriage. Two days later Joseph and Fanny are brought before the Justice
of the Peace, who is perfectly willing to acquiesce in Lady Booby’s plans.

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