"'Here are your plates,' he said, all of a tremble as he entered.
"'Let's see if any of them are broken,' said the merchant in a voice so gruff that Tom trembled all the harder. Surely he was now in worse trouble than ever.
"'H'm!' said the rich man taking one out and looking at it. 'That seems to be all right.'
"'Yes,' said Tom, meekly, surprised to note that the plate was as good as ever. 'It has been very neatly mended.'
"'Very what?' roared the rich man, who didn't want mended plates. 'Did you say mended?'
"'Oh, no, sir!' stammered Tom, who saw that he had made a bad mistake. 'That is, I didn't mean to say mended. I meant to say that they'd been very highly recommended.'
"'Oh! Recommended, eh?' returned the rich man more calmly. 'That's different. The rest of them seem to be all right, too. Here, take your basket and go along with you. Good-by!'
"And so Tom left the merchant's house very much pleased to have got out of his scrape so easily, and feeling very grateful to his Fairy Godmother for having helped him.
"'Well,' said she, when he got back to the gate where she was awaiting him, 'was everything all right?'
"'Yes,' said Tom, happily. 'The plates were all right, and now they are all left.'