Why, my
girls have as much, fat and flour on their heads as would half
maintain my reapers in suet pudding.

_Worthy._ Mr. Bragwell, in the management of my family, I don't
consider what I might afford only, though that is one great point;
but I consider also what is needful and becoming in a man of my
station; for there are so many useful ways of laying out money, that
I feel as if it were a sin to spend one unnecessary shilling. Having
had the blessing of a good education myself I have been able to give
the like advantage to my daughters. One of the best lessons I have
taught them is, to know themselves; and one proof that they have
learned this lesson is, that they are not above any of the duties of
their station. They read and write well, and when my eyes are bad,
they keep my accounts in a very pretty manner. If I had put them to
learn what you call _genteel things_, these might have been of no
use to them, and so both time and money thrown away; or they might
have proved worse than nothing to them by leading them into wrong
notions, and wrong company. Though we do not wish them to do the
laborious parts of the dairy work, yet they always assist their
mother in the management of it. As to their appearance, they are
every day nearly as you see them now, and on Sunday they are very
neatly dressed, but it is always in a decent and modest way. There
are no lappets, fringes, furbelows, and tawdry ornaments; no trains,
turbans, and flounces, fluttering about my cheese and butter. And I
should feel no vanity, but much mortification, if a stranger, seeing
Farmer Worthy's daughters at church, should ask who those fine
ladies were.

_Bragwell._ Now I own I should like to have such a question asked
concerning my daughters; I like to make people stare and envy. It
makes one feel one-self somebody. I never feel the pleasure of
having handsome things so much as when I see they raise curiosity;
and enjoy the envy of others as a fresh evidence of my own
prosperity. But as to yourself, to be sure, you best know what you
can afford; and indeed that there is some difference between your
daughters and the Miss Bragwells.

_Worthy._ For my part, before I engage in any expense, I always ask
myself these two short questions; First, can I afford it? Secondly,
is it proper for me?

_Bragwell._ Do you so? Now I own I ask myself but one; for if I find
I can afford it, I take care to make it proper for me. If I can pay
for a thing, no