disappeared, and gulfs and bays and islands were entirely lost. In fact, he
was sleepy, and had already had two or three narrow escapes from butting
over the candles; finally he fell from his chair, crushing Caddy's
newly-trimmed bonnet, to the intense grief and indignation of that young
lady, who inflicted summary vengeance upon him before he was sufficiently
awake to be aware of what had happened.

The work being finished, Mrs. Ellis and Caddy prepared to take it home to
Mrs. Thomas, leaving Esther at home to receive her father on his return and
give him his tea.

Mrs. Ellis and Caddy wended their way towards the fashionable part of the
city, looking in at the various shop-windows as they went. Numberless were
the great bargains they saw there displayed, and divers were the
discussions they held respecting them. "Oh, isn't that a pretty calico,
mother, that with the green ground?"

"'Tis pretty, but it won't wash, child; those colours always run."

"Just look at that silk though--now that's cheap, you must
acknowledge--only eighty-seven and a half cents; if I only had a dress of
that I should be fixed."

"Laws, Caddy!" replied Mrs. Ellis, "that stuff is as slazy as a washed
cotton handkerchief, and coarse enough almost to sift sand through. It
wouldn't last you any time. The silks they make now-a-days ain't worth
anything; they don't wear well at all. Why," continued she, "when I was a
girl they made silks that would stand on end--and one of them would last a
life-time."