it on
the wild waters of a turbulent world."

"But, Charles, I intend to do all that you counsel; no wonder poor
Lucy could not bear these words, when I, your own and only brother,
find them stern and reproachful; no wonder that such should be the
case; of course I _intend_ to provide for my children."

"Then DO IT," said Charles.

"Why, so I will; but cannot in a moment. I have already said there is
no hurry. You must give a little time."

"The time may come, my dear John, when TIME will give you no time. You
have been spending over and above your debt--more than, as the father
of four children, you have any right to spend. The duty parents owe
their children in this respect has preyed more strongly on my mind
than usual, as I have been called on lately to witness its effects--to
see its misery. One family at Repton, a family of eight children, has
been left entirely without provision, by a man who enjoyed a situation
of five hundred a-year in quarterly payments."

"That man is, however, guiltless. What could he save out of five
hundred a-year? How could he live on less?" replied the doctor.

"Live upon four, and insure his life for the benefit of those
children. Nay," continued Charles, in the vehemence of his feelings,
"the man who does not provide means of existence for his helpless
children, until they are able to provide for themselves, cannot
be called a reasonable person; and the legislature ought to oblige
such to contribute to a fund to prevent the spread of the worst sort
of pauperism--that which comes upon well-born children from the
carelessness or selfishness of their parents. God in his wisdom, and
certainly in his mercy, removed the poor broken-hearted widow of the
person I alluded to a month after his death; and the infant, whose
nourishment from its birth had been mingled with bitterness, followed
in a few days. I saw myself seven children crowd round the coffin
that was provided by charity; I saw three taken to the workhouse, and
the elder four distributed amongst kind-hearted hard-working people,
who are trying to inure the young soft hands, accustomed to silken
idleness, to the toils of homely industry. I ask you, John Adams, how
the husband of that woman, the father of those children, can meet
his God, when it is required of him to give an account of his
stewardship?"

"It is very true--very shocking indeed," observed Dr. Adams. "I
certainly will do something to secure my wife and children