She had her way therefore, and in course of time the ladies, and as many
of the children as could be crowded into the carriage, thus commenced
the last stage of their journey. The others were driven on by Trenholme.
As for the little boys, "a good run behind," their mother said, was just
what they needed to warm them up.

They began running behind, but soon ran in front, which rather confused
Mrs. Rexford's ideas of order, but still the carriage lumbered on.

CHAPTER XII.

Captain Rexford had no fortune with his second wife; and their children
numbered seven daughters and three sons. It was natural that the
expenses of so large a family should have proved too much for a slender
income in an English town where a certain style of living had been
deemed a necessity. When, further, a mercantile disaster had swept away
the larger part of this income, the anxious parents had felt that there
was nothing left for their children but a choice between degrading
dependence on the bounty of others and emigration. From the new start in
life which the latter course would give they had large hopes.
Accordingly, they gathered together all that they had, and, with a loan
from a richer relative, purchased a house and farm in a locality where
they were told their children would not wholly lack educational
opportunities or society. This move of theirs was heroic, but whether
wise or unwise remained to be proved by the result of indefinite years.
The extent of their wealth was now this new property, an income which,
in proportion to their needs, was a mere pittance, and the debt to the
richer relative.

The men who came to call on their new neighbour, and congratulate him on
his choice of a farm, did not know how small was the income nor how big
the debt, yet even they shook their heads dubiously as they thought of
their own difficulties, and remarked to each other that such a large
family was certainly a great responsibility.

"I wonder," said one to another, "if Rexford had an idea in coming here
that he would marry his daughters easily. It's a natural thing, you
know, when one hears of the flower of British youth leaving England for
the Colonies, to imagine that, in a place like this, girls would be at a
premium. I did. When we came out I said to my wife that when our little
girls grew up they might pick and choose for themselves from among a
dozen suitors, but--well, this isn't just the locality for that, is it?"

Both m