"Well, he's a boy that deserves to be thought of. He never was brought up to do the leastest individual thing, 'cept to study a book and make some little gimcrank with tools; and yet to see how he took hold the moment his father's misfortunes came—went right to the anvil, never murmured or complained; and though he's my nephew, I will say that he's worth as much to-day in this shop as the general run of apprentices that have worked two years; and as for working in wood, he always took to that. 'Twas born in him."
"Don't you think, Mr. Richardson, that a boy whose grandfather and father were blacksmiths is more likely to be handy in a shop?"
"I suppose these things are kind of handed down. I know there's a good deal in the blood; I know it by our girls. They are all broken down, sit and sigh, think what they used to have, and let their mother do all the work."
"Are they not own sisters to Rich?"
"The same father and mother; but they take back after the Armstrongs; they don't take after the Richardsons, who are a resolute, stirring breed of folks. Their old grandmother Armstrong was a dreadful slack-twisted, shiftless woman; had to be helped by the town; and when the selectmen gave her a cord of wood, she'd put about two foot into the great fireplace, declare she'd have one fire if she died for it, and then sit, fold her hands in her lap, and enjoy it. Her children took after her, 'cept my brother's wife, and she's smart as steel; took after her mother's people, the Blunts. But that old woman that's been dead and buried this twenty years has come out in the grandchildren. It is not the way, Mr. Morton, to bring up children. This twenty years past I've been saying to Clem and Lucy that they were doing wrong by their children. Says I, 'Bring them up to work as we were. If they don't need to, it's the easiest thing in the world to leave off; but it's hard to learn.' Then Lucy would say, 'Uncle, I don't want them to have to work as hard as I have.' Says I, 'Perhaps they may be obliged to. What then?' Then Clem would laugh, and say that old maids' and old bachelors' children were always brought up right."
"But I'm sure Rich has come out well."
"Indeed he has; but he is a remarkable boy, and is no rule to go by. Besides, we must thank you, and do thank you, for a good part of that: you did a parent's duty by him. Don't you think he is in better shape to keep the 'cademy, for teaching school in college, and wasn't he in better shape, and would he have had the pluck to go so willingly to the anvil if he hadn't been broke in by you in college?"
"I suppose you are right, Mr. Richardson; but in respect to the young ladies."
"Call 'em girls, Mr. Morton; and they are not very young at that."