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 men laughed a little. They knew that, however difficult it might be
to find the true explanation of the fact, the fact remained that there
were no young men in Chellaston, that boys who grew up there went as
inevitably elsewhere to make their fortunes as they would have done from
an English country town.

Among the ladies who came to see Mrs. Rexford and count her children,
the feeling concerning her was more nearly allied to kindly
commiseration than she would at all have liked had she known it. They
said that Captain Rexford might succeed if his wife and daughters--Each
would complete the conditional clause in her own way, but it was clear