don't want any
foolery about the boys. They have the brimstone and treacle, partly
because if they hadn't something or other in the way of medicine they'd
be always ailing and giving a world of trouble, and partly because it
spoils their appetites and comes cheaper than breakfast and dinner. So,
it does them good and us good at the same time, and that's fair enough
I'm sure.'

Having given this explanation, Mrs Squeers put her head into the closet
and instituted a stricter search after the spoon, in which Mr Squeers
assisted. A few words passed between them while they were thus engaged,
but as their voices were partially stifled by the cupboard, all that
Nicholas could distinguish was, that Mr Squeers said what Mrs Squeers
had said, was injudicious, and that Mrs Squeers said what Mr Squeers
said, was 'stuff.'

A vast deal of searching and rummaging ensued, and it proving fruitless,
Smike was called in, and pushed by Mrs Squeers, and boxed by Mr Squeers;
which course of treatment brightening his intellects, enabled him to
suggest that possibly Mrs Squeers might have the spoon in her pocket,
as indeed turned out to be the case. As Mrs Squeers had previously
protested, however, that she was quite certain she had not got it,
Smike received another box on the ear for presuming to contradict his
mistress, together with a promise of a sound thrashing if he were not
more respectful in future; so that he took nothing very advantageous by
his motion.

'A most invaluable woman, that, Nickleby,' said Squeers when his consort
had hurried away, pushing the drudge before her.

'Indeed, sir!' observed Nicholas.

'I don't know her equal,' said Squeers; 'I do not know her equal. That
woman, Nickleby, is always the same--always the same bustling, lively,
active, saving creetur that you see her now.'

Nicholas sighed involuntarily at the thought of the agreeable domestic
prospect thus opened to him; but Squeers was, fortunately, too much
occupied with his own reflections to perceive it.

'It's my way to say, when I am up in London,' continued Squeers, 'that
to them boys she is a mother. But she is more than a mother to them;
ten times more. She does things for them boys, Nickleby, that I don't
believe half the mothers going, would do for their own sons.'

'I should think they would not, sir,' answered Nicholas.

Now, the fact was, that both Mr and Mrs Squeers viewed the boys in the
light of their proper and natural enemies; or,