“Was that your way, father?”
“Ay, was it! I chose the right time, but the girl was wrong enough in some ways.”
“My mother wrong! Oh, no, father!”
“My father thought she was not rich enough for me. He was a good bit disappointed by my choice but I knew what I was doing.”
“Father, I also know what I am doing. I suppose you object to Faith’s want of fortune.”
“Mebbe I do, and I wouldn’t be to blame if I did, but as it happens I think a man is better without his wife’s money. A wife’s money is a quarrelsome bit of either land or gold.”
“I consider Faith’s goodness a fortune far beyond any amount of either gold or land.”
“Doan’t thee say anything against either land or gold. When thou hes lived as long as I hev thou wilt know better than do that.”
“Wisdom is better than riches. I have heard you say that often.”
“It was in Solomon’s time. I doan’t know that it is in Victoria’s. The wise men of this day would be a deal wiser if they hed a bit of gold to carry out all the machines and railroads and canals they are planning; and what would the final outcome be, if they hed it? Money, money, and still more money. This last year, Dick, I hev got some new light both on poverty and riches and I have seen one thing plainly, it is that money is a varry good, respectable thing, and a thing that goes well with lovemaking; but poverty is the least romantic of all misfortunes. A man may hide, or cure, or forget any other kind of trouble, but, my lad, there is no Sanctuary for Poverty.”