
should be furnished with a couple of as fine apples as ever were seen in
England. The terms (I scarce need say) were greedily embraced, the fruit secured
in her possession; and she departed that very night on her return to her
brother's house, where she safely arrived with her acquisition, and was most
cordially received by her sister, who had been under some apprehensions on her
account. Neither was his lordship forgotten in Mrs. Grizzle's benediction, when
she understood from the valet who accompanied her, that he had, with his own
eyes, seen above an hundred pine-apples ripe for cutting in his garden the
evening of that very day on which he had assured her that there was not one
left.
 

                                   Chapter VI

Mrs. Grizzle is indefatigable in gratifying her Sister's Longings. Peregrine is
born, and managed contrary to the Directions and Remonstrances of his Aunt, who
is disgusted upon that Account; and resumes the Plan which she had before
rejected
 
The success of this device would have encouraged Mrs. Pickle to practise more of
the same sort upon her sister-in-law, had she not been deterred by a violent
fever which seized her zealous ally, in consequence of the fatigue and
uneasiness she had undergone; which, while it lasted, as effectually conduced to
her repose, as any other stratagem she could invent. But Mrs. Grizzle's health
was no sooner restored, than the other being as much incommoded as ever, was
obliged, in her own defence, to have recourse to some other contrivance; and
managed her artifices in such a manner, as leaves it at this day a doubt whether
she was really so whimsical and capricious in her appetites as she herself
pretended to be; for her longings were not restricted to the demands of the
palate and stomach, but also affected all the other organs of sense, and even
invaded her imagination, which at this period seemed to be strangely diseased.
    One time she longed to pinch her husband's ear; and it was with infinite
difficulty that his sister could prevail upon him to undergo the operation. Yet
this task was easy, in comparison with another she undertook for the
gratification of Mrs. Pickle's unaccountable desire; which was no other than to
persuade the commodore to submit his chin to the mercy of the big-bellied lady,
who ardently wished for an opportunity of plucking three black hairs from his
beard. When this proposal was first communicated to Mr. Trunnion by the husband,
his answer was nothing but a dreadful effusion of oaths, accompanied with such a
stare,
