To be sure, nobody can deny but that money is very desirable, and
people that are rich can do many agreeable things which we poor
ones cannot; but yet, for all that, money does not make people
happy. Happiness, Master George, depends greatly upon people's
own tempers and dispositions: a person who is fretful and cross
will never be happy, though he should be made king of all England;
and a person who is contented and good-humoured will never be
wretched, though he should be as poor as a beggar. So never fret
yourself, love, because Betty Flood is poor; for though I am poor,
I am honest; and whilst my husband and I are happy enough to be
blessed with health, and the use of our limbs, we can work for our
living; and though we have no great plenty, still we have
sufficient to support us. So pray, dear, eat your cake yourself,
for I would not take it from you for ever so much.' They then
disputed for some time who should have it: at last, George
scuffled away from her, and put it into the closet, and then,
nodding his head at her, ran away, saying, he must go to school
that moment.

Betty Flood then ate her breakfast; and we heard her say something
about the nasty mice, but what we could not make out, as she
muttered softly to herself. She then came to the trunk behind
which we lay, and taking out of it a roll of new linen, sat down
to needlework. At twelve o'clock her husband and son returned; so
moving her table out of the way, she made room for them at the
fire, and, fetching the frying pan, dressed some rashers of the
nice bacon we had before tasted in the cupboard. The boy, in the
mean time, spread a cloth on the table, and placed the bread and
cold pudding on it likewise: then, returning to the closet for
their plates, he cried out, 'Lauk! father, here is a nice hunch of