`` Leave a woman alone to find out that , '' said John admiringly . `` Now , a man would never have thought of it ! Whereas , it 's my belief that if you was to pack a wedding-cake up in a tea-chest , or a turn-up bedstead , or a pickled-salmon keg , or any unlikely thing , a woman would be sure to find it out directly . Yes ; I called for it at the pastrycook 's . '' `` And it weighs I do n't know what -- whole hundredweights ! '' cried Dot , making a great demonstration of trying to lift it . `` Whose is it , John ? Where is it going ? '' `` Read the writing on the other side , '' said John . `` Why , John ! My Goodness , John ! '' `` Ah ! who 'd have thought it ? '' John returned . `` You never mean to say , '' pursued Dot , sitting on the floor and shaking her head at him , `` that it 's Gruff and Tackleton the toymaker ! '' John nodded . Mrs. Peerybingle nodded also , fifty times at least . Not in assent -- in dumb and pitying amazement ; screwing up her lips , the while , with all their little force -LRB- they were never made for screwing up ; I am clear of that -RRB- , and looking the good Carrier through and through , in her abstraction . Miss Slowboy , in the meantime , who had a mechanical power of reproducing scraps of current conversation for the delectation of the baby , with all the sense struck out of them , and all the nouns changed into the plural number , inquired aloud of that young creature , Was it Gruffs and Tackletons the toymakers then , and Would it call at Pastrycooks for wedding-cakes , and Did its mothers know the boxes when its fathers brought them home ; and so on . `` And that is really to come about ! ''
XXXXX Dot .
Did Leave called changed know pack pitying returned said weighs