 piss-kitchen; and immediately after
drank despair to all old maids; a toast which Mr. Pickle pledged without the
least hesitation, and next day intimated to his sister, who bore the indignity
with surprising resignation, and did not therefore desist from her scheme,
unpromising as it seemed to be, until her attention was called off, and engaged
in another care, which, for some time, interrupted the progress of this design.
Her sister had not been married many months, when she exhibited evident symptoms
of pregnancy, to the general satisfaction of all concerned, and the
inexpressible joy of Mrs. Grizzle, who (as we have already hinted) was more
interested in the preservation of the family-name, than in any other
consideration whatever. She therefore no sooner discovered appearances to
justify and confirm her hopes, than postponing her own purpose, and laying aside
that pique and resentment she had conceived from the behaviour of Mrs. Pickle,
when she superseded her authority; or perhaps, considering her in no other light
than that of the vehicle which contained, and was destined to convey her
brother's heir to light, she determined to exert her uttermost in nursing,
tending, and cherishing her, during the term of her important charge. With this
view she purchased Culpepper's midwifery, which, with that sagacious performance
dignified with Aristotle's name, she studied with indefatigable care, and
diligently perused the Compleat House-wife, together with Quincy's dispensatory,
culling every jelly, marmalade and conserve which these authors recommend as
either salutory or toothsome, for the benefit and comfort of her sister-in-law,
during her gestation. She restricted her from eating roots, pot-herbs, fruit,
and all sort of vegetables; and one day when Mrs. Pickle had plucked a peach
with her own hand, and was in the very act of putting it between her teeth, Mrs.
Grizzle perceived the rash attempt, and running up to her, fell upon her knees
in the garden, intreating her, with tears in her eyes, to resist such a
pernicious appetite. Her request was no sooner complied with, than recollecting
that if her sister's longing was baulked, the child might be affected with some
disagreeable mark, or deplorable disease, she begged as earnestly that she would
swallow the fruit, and in the mean time ran for some cordial water of her own
composing, which she forced upon her sister, as an antidote to the poison she
had received.
    This excessive zeal and tenderness did not fail to be very troublesome to
Mrs. Pickle,
