child he might have "died as he lived, an excellent chemist, an honest man, and one of the best husbands in the world;" but if a weak man will talk, people will find him out.
He passed away very easy, not long after this, just in time to save his credit, so that no one but Peter Broo and captain Muff gave a ha, ha, or a smile when his death was announced. The baby's tooth stood for ever uppermost in their eyes; and when they told the story, which they did every day for a twelvemonth, they got the thundering big tooth to the size of an elephant's.
He was missed at home, particularly when the window shutters were to be latched, which office Hannah French now undertook, and the first sound of mirth that was heard in the house was from her. The baby's teeth all came out finely; and one day as she put on her spectacles to look at them, she gave one of her little deaf laughs. Mrs. Bangs asked her what she laughed at, but Hannah French was too "cute" to tell. It was what follows that passed through her brain and produced the laugh at the end of it.
"I am glad," thought she, "the old man went off as he did, for the baby's mouth would have gone from ear to ear, by his grandfather's constantly pulling it open to see what thundering big tooth was coming out next; and the baby was so used to have his mouth stretched open, that whenever he heard his grandfather's voice on the stairs, he used, of his own accord, to throw his head back and open his mouth as wide as possible." Then it was, as this passed through her mind, that Hannah French laughed; but it would not have done to tell Mrs. Bangs of it.
Every one of Mrs. Bangs's thirteen daughters married, and every one had sons and daughters. I have something pleasant to say of all of them, though not so much as I have said of Fanny. She
