"Not for to put it in a hedge,
Not for a train attendent,--
But for the glorious privilege
Of being Independent."




CHAPTER III.

IMPROVIDENCE.


"The man who has a wife and children has given hostages to
fortune."--_Lord Bacon._

"In all conditions and circumstances, well-being is in the power of
those who have power over themselves."--_J.J. Gurney_.

"Where is their common sense? Alas, what imprudence! Early marriages;
many children; poor-rates, and the workhouse.... They are born; they are
wretched; they die.... In no foreign country of far less civilization
than England, is there the same improvidence."--_Lord Lytton_.

"No man oppresses thee, O free and independent franchiser; but does not
this stupid pewter pot oppress thee? No son of Adam can bid thee come or
go, but this absurd pot of heavy-wet can and does, Thou art the thrall,
not of Cedric the Saxon, but of thy own brutal appetites, and this
accursed dish of liquor. And thou pratest of thy 'liberty,' thou entire