nd, who, we need scarcely add, knew as little of the
real cause of his being fitted out with this new piece of head-gear as
his neighbour, Callender.

Thus far, then, with Mrs. Anderson too, went the plot of the nightcaps
smoothly; and all that she also now wanted to attain the end she aimed
at, was her husband's appearance in _his_ garden, with his new
acquisition on.

This consummation she also quickly brought round. John sallied out with
his red nightcap; and, oh, joy of joys! Mrs. Callender saw it. Ay, Mrs.
Callender saw it--at once recognised in it the spirit which had dictated
its display; and deep and deadly was the revenge that she vowed.

"Becky, Becky," she exclaimed, in a tone of lofty indignation--and thus
summoning to her presence, from an adjoining apartment, her daughter, a
little girl of about ten years of age--"rin owre dereckly to Lucky
Anderson's and tell her to give me my jeely can immediately." And Mrs.
Callender stamped her foot, grew red in the face, and exhibited sundry
other symptoms of towering passion. Becky instantly obeyed the order so
peremptorily given; and, while she is doing so, we may throw in a
digressive word or two, by the way of more fully enlightening the reader
regarding the turn which matters seemed now about to take. Be it known
to him, then, that the demand for the jelly pot, which was now about to
be made on Mrs. Anderson, was not a _bona fide_ proceeding. It was not
made in good faith; for Mrs. Callender knew well, and had been told so
fifty times, that the said jelly pot was no longer in existence as a
jelly pot; and moreover, she had been, as often as she was told this,
offered full compensation, which might be about three farthings sterling
money of this realm, for the demolished commodity. Moreover, again, it
was three years since it had been borrowed. From all this, the reader
will at once perceive, what was the fact, that the sending for the said
jelly pot, on the present occasion, and in the way described, was a mere
breaking of ground previous to the performance of some other
contemplated operations. It was, in truth, entirely a tactical
proceeding--a dexterously and ingeniously laid pretext for a certain
intended measure which could not decently have stood on its own simple
merits. In proof of this, we need only state, that it is beyond all
question that nothing could have disappointed Mrs. Callender more than
the return of the desiderated jelly pot. But this, she