“Ha!” said the mother, with a pleased smile, though still keeping on her guard, “so the little monkey pleases you, does he? Ay, he is indeed a darling. Thanking you just the same, I would not part with him for all the treasures in the world.”
“Silly woman,” returned Rubezahl;” “hast thou not three other children to wear thee out day and night, and leave thee ever poor and miserable? Why, thou canst barely keep life in them as ’tis.”
“True,” replied the woman, “but I am their mother, and must do my duty by them; besides, though children are the cause of much pain and anxiety, they are also a source of great pleasure.”
“A mighty pleasure, truly,” sneered the Gnome, “to drag the cubs about with thee all day, and have them keep thee awake half the night; to be worn out with their teasing and crying, and have to provide them with food, when the food thou’st got is hardly enough for thyself.”
“Ah, sir, there is much truth in this, but then you know not a mother’s pleasures; the dimpled smile of her infant, the first words its pretty mouth utters, in broken accents, richly reward her for all her cares. See this little fellow, how he hangs about me, and kisses me, the coaxing young rogue! Ah, my dear children, would that I had a hundred hands to lead you about, and to labour for you!”
