“Your word, Nancy!” replied Mrs Chopper, shaking her head.

“Stop a moment,” said Nancy, coming down the side with very little regard as to showing her well-formed legs; “stop, Mrs Chopper, and I’ll explain to you.”

“It’s no use coming down, Nancy, I tell you,” replied Mrs Chopper.

“Well, we shall see,” replied Nancy, taking her seat in the boat, and looking archly in Mrs Chopper’s face; “the fact is Mrs Chopper, you don’t know what a good-tempered woman you are.”

“I know, Nancy, what you are,” replied Mrs Chopper.

“Oh, so does everybody: I’m nobody’s enemy but my own, they say.”

“Ah! that’s very true, child; more’s the pity.”

“Now, I didn’t come down to wheedle you out of anything, Mrs Chopper, but merely to talk to you, and look at this pretty boy.”

“There you go, Nancy; but ain’t he like Peter?”

“Well, and so he is! very like Peter; he has Peter’s eyes and his nose, and his mouth is exactly Peter’s—how very strange!”