CHAPTER VI.
PRUDY IN A NEW LIGHT.
Mother Hubbard was heated, and tired, and hungry, and cross.

It was all very well for a lady boarder to loll on an ottoman, play with her rings, and find fault.

It was all very well for a gentleman boarder to fire poor jokes; but they couldn't either of them know how every word cut like a lash.

When the doctor said, carelessly, "Some people think themselves great cooks, my lady; but the proof of the pudding's in the eating," why, that speech was "the pin in the end of the lash." Prudy saw now that she had pretended to know a great deal more than she really did.

Pretension is very apt to get laughed at.