restaurant, and have treated myself to a repast of such sumptuousness
as the aforesaid small change would command, emerging from that
restaurant stronger and more fit for battle. And lo! the sun of my
prosperity has peeped at me from over the clouds with a sly wink, as
if to say "Cheer up; I am only round the corner."

Cheery, elastic Mr. and Mrs. Micawber, how would half the world face
their fate but by the help of a kindly, shallow nature such as yours?
I love to think that your sorrows can be drowned in nothing more
harmful than a bowl of punch. Here's to you, Emma, and to you,
Wilkins, and to the twins!

May you and such childlike folk trip lightly over the stones upon
your path! May something ever turn up for you, my dears! May the
rain of life ever fall as April showers upon your simple bald head,
Micawber!

And you, sweet Dora, let me confess I love you, though sensible
friends deem you foolish. Ah, silly Dora, fashioned by wise Mother
Nature who knows that weakness and helplessness are as a talisman
calling forth strength and tenderness in man, trouble yourself not
unduly about the oysters and the underdone mutton, little woman.
Good plain cooks at twenty pounds a year will see to these things for
us. Your work is to teach us gentleness and kindness. Lay your
foolish curls just here, child. It is from such as you we learn
wisdom. Foolish wise folk sneer at you. Foolish wise folk would
pull up the laughing lilies, the needless roses from the garden,
would plant in their places only useful, wholesome cabbage. But the
gardener, knowing better, plants the silly, short-lived flowers,
foolish wise folk asking for what purpose.