f ye'll be sae guid, _Mem_, as gie me my jeely
mug."

"Yer jeely mug, Mrs. Callender!" exclaimed Mrs. Anderson, raising
herself to her utmost height, and already beginning to exhibit symptoms
of incipient indignation. "Yer jeely mug, Mrs. Callender!" she repeated,
with a provokingly ironical emphasis. "Dear help me, woman, but ye _do_
mak an awfu wark about that jeely mug o' yours. I'm sure it wasna sae
muckle worth; and ye hae been often tell't that it was broken, but that
we wad willingly pay ye for't."

"It's no payment I want, Mrs. Anderson," replied Mrs. Callender, with a
high-spirited toss of the head. "I want my mug, and my mug I'll hae. Do
ye hear that?" And here Mrs. Callender struck her clenched fist on the
open side of her left hand, in the impressive way peculiar to some
ladies when under the influence of passion. "And, since ye come to that
o't, let me tell ye ye're a very insultin, ill-bred woman, to tell me
that it wasna muckle worth, after ye hae broken't."

"My word, lass," replied Mrs. Anderson, bridling up, with flushed
countenance, and head erect, to the calumniator, "but ye're no blate to
ca' me thae names i' my ain house."

"Ay, I'll ca' ye thae names, and waur too, in yer ain house, or onywhar
else," replied the other belligerent, clenching her teeth fiercely
together, and thrusting her face with most intense ferocity into the
countenance of her antagonist. "Ay, here or onywhar else," she replied,
"I'll ca' ye a mean-spirited, impident woman--an upsettin impident
woman! Set your man up, indeed, wi' a red nichtkep!"

"An' what for no?" replied Mrs. Anderson with a look of triumphant
inquiry. "He's as weel able to pay for't as you, and maybe, if a' was
kent, a hantle better. A red nichtkep, indeed, ye impertinent hizzy!"

"'Od, an' ye hizzy me, I'll te-e-e-eer the liver out o' ye!" exclaimed
the now infuriated Mrs. Callender, at the same instant seizing her
antagonist by the hair of the head and _mutch_ together, and, in a
twinkling, tearing the latter into a thousand shreds. Active hostilities
being now fairly commenced, a series of brilliant operations, both
offensive and defensive, immediately ensued. The first act of aggression
on the part of Mrs. Callender--namely, demolishing her opponent's
head-gear--was returned by the latter by a precisely similar proceeding;
that is, by tearing _her_ mutch into fragments.

This preliminary operation performed, the combatants resorted to
certain var