another hair to save them all from damnation.

Mr. Hatchway exhorted him to patience and resignation; Mrs. Grizzle
repeated her entreaties with great humility; but finding him deaf
to all her prayers, and absolutely bent upon leaving the house,
she clasped his knees, and begged for the love of God that he would
have compassion upon a distressed family, and endure a little more
for the sake of the poor infant, who would otherwise be born with
a gray beard upon its chin. Far from being melted, he was rather
exasperated by this reflection; to which he replied with great
indignation, "D-- you for a yaw-sighted b--! I'll be hanged, long
enough before he has any beard at all:" so saying, he disengaged
himself from her embraces, flung out at the door, and halted homewards
with such surprising speed, that the lieutenant could not overtake
him until he had arrived at his own gate; and Mrs. Grizzle was so
much affected with his escape, that her sister, in pure compassion,
desired she would not afflict herself, protesting that her own wish
was already gratified, for she had plucked three hairs at once,
having from the beginning been dubious of the commodore's patience.

But the labours of this assiduous kinswoman did not end with the
achievement of this adventure: her eloquence or industry was employed
without ceasing in the performance of other tasks imposed by the
ingenious craft of her sister-in-law, who at another time conceived
an insuppressible affection for a fricassee of frogs, which should
be the genuine natives of France; so that there was a necessity
for despatching a messenger on purpose to that kingdom; but as she
could not depend upon the integrity of any common servant, Mrs.
Grizzle undertook that province, and actually set sail in a cutter
for Boulogne, from whence she returned in eight-and-forty hours