ight about what
is yours and what is mine. I should be afraid of making some mistake and
claiming what does not belong to me, and if business were not so clear
and simple I should never find my way in it."

"So much the worse, my son; and this is the reason I wish you to have a
wife with a clear head to fill my place when I am gone. You never wished
to understand our accounts, and this might lead you into a quarrel with
my son, when you don't have me any longer to keep you in harmony and
decide what is each one's share."

"May you live long, Father Maurice. But do not worry about what will
happen when you die. I shall never quarrel with your son. I trust
Jacques as I do you; and as I have no property of my own, and all that
might accrue to me comes from your daughter and belongs to our children,
I can rest easy, and you, too. Jacques would never rob his sister's
children for the sake of his own, for he loves them all equally."

"You are right, Germain. Jacques is a good son, a good brother, and a
man who loves the truth. But Jacques may die before you, before your
children grow up; and in a family we must always remember never to
leave children without a head to look after them and govern their
disagreements; otherwise, the lawyer-people mix themselves up in it,
stir them up to fight, and make them eat up everything in law-suits.
So we ought not to think of bringing home another person, man or woman,
without remembering that some day or other that person may have to
control the behavior and business of twenty or thirty children and
grandchildren, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. We never know how big a
family can grow, and when a hive is so full that the bees must form new
swarms, each one wishes to carry off her share of the honey. When I took
you for my son, although my daughter was rich and you were poor, I never
reproached her for choosing you. I saw that you were a hard worker, and
I knew very well that the best fortune for people in such a country as
ours is a pair of arms and a heart like yours. When a man brings these
into a family, he brings enough. But with a woman it is different. Her
work indoors saves, but it does not gain. Besides, now that you are
a father, looking for a second wife, you must remember that your new
children will have no claim on the property of your children by another
wife; and if you should happen to die they might suffer very much--at
least, if your wife had no money in her own righ