Great Expectations Chapter Four Summary

Phew. No one suspects Pip has been up to no good when he returns home.
Everyone’s getting ready for Christmas dinner with Mr. Wopsle (the clerk at church), Mr. Hubble (the wheelwright), Mrs. Hubble, and Mr. Pumblechook (Joe’s uncle).
It’s a nerve-wracking dinner, because Pip doesn’t know what he’s going to do when Mr. Pumblechook tastes the watered down brandy or when his sister discovers that the pork-pie is gone. He starts imagining what the Tickler will do to him.
Mr. Pumblechook tries the brandy, only to launch into a coughing fit. Pip accidentally filled the brandy bottle with tar water to make it seem like nothing had been stolen.
Everyone is totally confused as to how tar water could have possibly found its way into the bottle.
Just when Pip’s sister goes to get the famous pork-pie, the crowning Christmas delight, Pip can’t take it anymore. The Tickler looms large, and he bolts for the door in the hopes of escaping the wrath to come.
Pip runs right into a party of soldiers at the Gargery doorstep.
Ruh-roh.