se than tolerable:
had I not undergone it, I never could have known the kindness of
friends, the delight of gratitude, the surprising joys and consolations
which sometimes accompany the scanty meal and narrow fire, and cheer the
long day's labour. This at least is certain, in respect of the lot of
the decent poor, that a great deal of superfluous pity is often thrown
away upon it. Good-natured fine folks, who sometimes stepped out of the
sunshine of their riches into a narrow obscurity, were blinded as it
were, whilst we could see quite cheerfully and clearly: they stumbled
over obstacles which were none to us: they were surprised at the
resignation with which we drank small beer, and that we could heartily
say grace over such very cold mutton.

The good General, my father-in-law, had married his Molly, when he was a
subaltern of a foot regiment, and had a purse scarce better filled than
my own. They had had their ups and downs of fortune. I think (though my
wife will never confess to this point) they had married, as people could
do in their young time, without previously asking papa's and mamma's
leave. [The Editor has looked through Burn's Registers of Fleet
Marriages without finding the names of Martin Lambert and Mary Benson.]
At all events, they were so well pleased with their own good luck in
matrimony, that they did not grudge their children's, and were by no
means frightened at the idea of any little hardships which we in the
course of our married life might be called upon to undergo. And I
suppose when I made my own pecuniary statements to Mr. Lambert, I was
anxious to deceive both of us. Believing me to be master of a couple
of thousand pounds, he went to Jamaica quite easy in his mind as to his
darling daughter's comfort and maintenance, at least for some years to
come. After paying the expenses of his family's outfit, the worthy man
went away not much richer than his son-in-law; and a few trinkets, and
some lace of Aunt Lambert's, with twenty new guineas in a purse which
her mother and sisters made for her, were my Theo's marriage portion.
But in valuing my stock, I chose to count as a good debt a sum which my
honoured mother never could be got to acknowledge up to the day when the
resolute old lady was called to pay the last debt of all. The sums I
had disbursed for her, she argued, were spent for the improvement and
maintenance of the estate which was to be mine at her decease. What
money she could spare w