nd how could he equip his children for the fight into which he was
sending them? They had begun their life in need and penury, which had,
as far as possible, to be concealed; they had early learned the bitter
lesson of the disparity between inward expectations and demands and
outward circumstances; and from their slovenly home they would take with
them the most crushing inheritance, perhaps, under which a man can toil
through life; to wit, poverty with pretensions.

Soeren tried to tell himself that heaven would take care of them. But he
was ashamed to do so, for he felt it was only a phrase of self-excuse,
designed to allay the qualms of conscience.

These thoughts were his worst torment; but, truth to tell, they did not
often attack him, for Soeren had sunk into apathy. That was the Sheriff's
view of his case. "My clerk was quite a clever fellow in his time," he
used to say. "But, you know, his hasty marriage, his large family, and
all that--in short, he has almost done for himself."

Badly dressed and badly fed, beset with debts and cares, he was worn out
and weary before he had accomplished anything. And life went its way,
and Soeren dragged himself along in its train. He seemed to be forgotten
by all save heaven, which, as aforesaid, sent him year by year a little
angel with locks of gold--

Soeren's young wife had clung faithfully to her husband through these six
years, and she, too, had reached the same point.

The first year of her married life had glided away like a dream of
dizzy bliss. When she held up the little golden-locked angel for the
admiration of her lady friends, she was beautiful with the beauty of
perfect maternal happiness; and Miss Ludvigsen said: "Here is love in
its ideal form."

But Mrs. Olsen's "nest" soon became too small; the family increased
while the income stood still.

She was daily confronted by new claims, new cares, and new duties. Marie
set staunchly to work, for she was a courageous and sensible woman.

It is not one of the so-called elevating employments to have charge of
a houseful of little children, with no means of satisfying even moderate
requirements in respect of comfort and well-being. In addition to this,
she was never thoroughly robust; she oscillated perpetually between
having just had, and being just about to have, a child. As she toiled
from morning to night, she lost her buoyancy of spirit, and her mind
became bitter. She sometimes asked herself: "What is the