"Yes, the opportunity was a good one, and I ought to have improved it. But I did not and the whole system, sanctioned or not sanctioned by Mrs. Jordon, is in force against me." "And will continue, unless some means be adopted by which to abate the nuisance." "Seriously, Mr. Smith," said I, "I am clear for removing from the neighborhood." But Mr. Smith said, "Nonsense, Jane!" A form of expression he uses, when he wishes to say that my proposition or suggestion is perfectly ridiculous, and not to be thought of for a moment. "What is to be done?" I asked. "Bear the evil?" "Correct it, if you can." "And if not, bear it the best I can?" "Yes, that is my advice." This was about the extent of aid I ever received from my husband in any of my domestic difficulties. He is a first-rate abstractionist, and can see to a hair how others ought to act in every imaginable, and I was going to say unimaginable case; but is just as backward about telling people what he thinks of them, and making everybody with whom he has anything to do toe the mark, as I am. As the idea of moving to get rid of my borrowing neighbor was considered perfect nonsense by Mr. Smith, I began to think seriously how I should check the evil, now grown almost insufferable. On the next morning the coffee-mill was borrowed to begin with. "Hasn't Mrs. Jordon got a coffee-mill of her own?" I asked of Bridget. "Yes, ma'am," she replied, "but it is such a poor one that Nancy won't use it. She says it takes her forever and a day to grind enough coffee for breakfast." "Does she get ours every morning?" "Yes, ma'am." Nancy opened the kitchen door at this moment--our back gates were side by side--and said-- "Mrs. Jordon says, will you oblige her so much as to let her have an egg to clear the coffee? I forgot to tell her yesterday that ours were all gone." "Certainly," I said. "Bridget, give Nancy an egg." "Mrs. Jordon is very sorry to trouble you, Mrs. Smith," said Nancy, re-appearing in a little while, and finding me still in the kitchen, "but she says if you will lend her a bowl of sugar it will be a great accommodation. I forgot to tell her yesterday that the sugar was all gone." "You appear to be rather forgetful of such matters, Nancy," I could not help saying. "I know I am a little forgetful," the girl said, good humoredly, "but I have so much to do, that I hardly have time to think." "Where is the large earthen dish that you use sometimes in making bread?" I asked, after Mrs. Jordon's cook had withdrawn, missing it from its usual place on the shelf. "Nancy borrowed it last week." "Why don't she bring it home?" "I've told her about it three or four times." Nancy opened the door again. "Please, ma'am to let Mrs. Jordon have another half pound of butter. We haven't enough to do for breakfast, and the butter man don't come until the middle of the day."