"How many children have you, Mrs. Brent?"
"
I hev been married seventeen years, and I hev ten lads and lasses—all of them fair and good and world-like. God bless them!"
"Ten! Ten! How do you manage?"
"Varry well indeed. Sam Brent is a forelooking man. They hev a good father, and I try to keep step with him. We are varry proud of our childer. The eldest is a boy and helps his father with the cows main well. The second is a girl and stands by her mother—the rest are at school, or just babies. It is hard times, it is that, but God blesses our crust and our cup, and we don't want. We be all well and healthy, too."
"I wonder you are not broken down with bearing so many children."
"Nay, not I! Every fresh baby gives me fresh youth and health—if I do it justice. Don't you find it so, ma'am?"
"No."
"How many hev you hed?"
"One. A little girl."