They carried the tidings home, when many a dinner was spoiled by the loathing which the intelligence imparted; for the account of the materials was supposed to explain the reddish tinge which, even in the days of the Cooper's fame, had seemed somewhat suspicious.

The ware of Cooper Climent was rejected in horror, much to the benefit of his rivals the muggers, who dealt in earthenware.
The man of cutty-spoon and ladle saw his trade interrupted, and learned the reason, by his quondam customers coming upon him in wrath to return the goods which were composed of such unhallowed materials, and demand repayment of their money.

In this disagreeable predicament, the forlorn artist cited Old Mortality into a court of justice, where he proved that the wood he used in his trade was that of the staves of old wine-pipes bought from smugglers, with whom the country then abounded, a circumstance which fully accounted for their imparting a colour to their contents.

Old Mortality himself made the fullest declaration, that he had no other purpose in making the assertion, than to check the petulance of the children.

But it is easier to take away a good name than to restore it.