Why, look; I myself was just the kind of
poor man that would have suited that lecturer. And what came of it?
If I'd let my poor Jenny go her own way from the first, we should
have had hard times now and then, but there'd have been our love to
help us, and we should have been happy enough. They talk about
thriftiness, and it just means that poor people are expected to
practise a self-denial that the rich can't even imagine, much less
carry out You know now why this kind of talk always angers me.'
Michael brooded for a few moments, his eyes straying sadly over the
landscape before him.
'I was punished,' he continued, 'and in the fittest way. The two of
my boys who showed most love for me, Edward and Robert, died young.
The eldest and youngest were a constant trouble to me. Michael was
quick-tempered and self-willed, like myself; I took the wrong way
with him, just like I had with his mother, and there was no peace
till he left home. Joseph was still harder to deal with; but he's
the only one left alive, and there is no need to bring up things
against him. With him I wasn't to blame, unless I treated him too
kindly and spoilt him.
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