"I'm always wanting money for clothes?
 MR. AND MRS. CAUDLE AT CHURCH. |
"How can you lie in your bed and say that? I'm sure there's no children in the world that cost their father so little: but that's it; the less a poor woman does upon, the less she may. It's the wives who don't care where the money comes from who're best thought of. Oh, if my time was to come over again, would I mend and stitch, and make the things go so far as I have done? No—that I wouldn't. Yes, it's very well for you to lie there and laugh; it's easy to laugh, Caudle—very easy, to people who don't feel.
"Now, Caudle, dear! What a man you are! I know you'll give me the money, because, after all, I think you love your children, and like to see 'em well dressed. It's only natural that a father should. Eh, Caudle, eh? Now you sha'n't go to sleep till you've told me.
"How much money do I want?
"Why, let me see, love. There's Caroline, and Jane, and Susannah, and Mary Anne, and—What do you say?
"I needn't count 'em; you know how many there are?
