st for her
share.

I know how many lumps of sugar you take from each pound as it arrives.
I have counted the lumps, you old thief, and for years have never said
a word, except to Miss Clapperclaw, the first-floor lodger. Once I put
a bottle of pale brandy into that cupboard, of which you and I only have
keys, and the liquor wasted and wasted away until it was all gone. You
drank the whole of it, you wicked old woman. You a lady, indeed!

I know your rage when they did me the honor to elect me a member of the
"Poluphloisboiothalasses Club," and I ceased consequently to dine at
home. When I DID dine at home,--on a beefsteak let us say,--I should
like to know what you had for supper. You first amputated portions of
the meat when raw; you abstracted more when cooked. Do you think I was
taken in by your flimsy pretences? I wonder how you could dare to do
such things before your maids (you a clergyman's daughter and widow,
indeed), whom you yourself were always charging with roguery.

Yes, the insolence of the old woman is unbearable, and I must break out
at last. If she goes off in a fit at reading this, I am sure I shan't
mind. She has two unhappy wenches, against whom her old tongue is
clacking from morning till night: she pounces on them at all hours. It
was but this morning at eight, when poor Molly was brooming the steps,
and the baker paying her by no means unmerited compliments, that my
landlady came whirling out of the ground-floor front, and sent the poor
girl whimpering into the kitchen.

Were it but for her conduct to her maids I was determined publicly
to denounce her. These poor wretches she causes to lead the lives of
demons; and not content with bullying them all day, she sleeps at
night in the same room with them, so that she may have them up before
daybreak, and scold them while they are dressing.

Certain it is, that between her and Miss Clapperclaw, on the first
floor, the poor wenches lead a dismal life.

It is to you that I owe most of my knowledge of our neighbors; from you
it is that most of the facts and observations contained in these brief
pages are taken. Many a night, over our tea, have we talked amiably
about our neighbors and their little failings; and as I know that you
speak of mine pretty freely, why, let me say, my dear Bessy, that if we
have not built up Our Street between us, at least we have pulled it to
pieces.

THE BUNGALOW--CAPTAIN AND MRS. BRAGG.

Long, long ago, when Ou