"Well, I'll tell you," says the Major. "Do you know how much property I have got?"
"No, indeed."
"I have only ten thousand pounds; and how am I to bring up a family on the interest of that?"
"I should fancy it was quite enough for you," said the Vicar; "you have only one son."
"How many more am I likely to have, eh? And how should I look to find myself at sixty with five boys grown up, and only 300L. a-year?"
"That is rather an extreme case," said the Vicar; "you would be poor then, certainly."
"Just what I don't want to be. Besides wanting to make some money, I am leading an idle life here, and am getting very tired of it. And so—" he hesitated.
"And so?" said the Vicar.
"I am thinking of emigrating. To New South Wales. To go into the sheep-farming line. There."
"There indeed," said the Vicar. "And what has put you up to it?"