were in order, and his bright, manly face did everyone good to look
at. He still took little Clara upon his knee. Ha! there would come a
day before long when he would not venture to do that, and then
perhaps--perhaps! What a supper that was, and how smoothly went
the great wheels of the world that evening!

One baby, two babies, three babies; before the birth of the third,
John's brow was again clouded, again he had begun to rail and fume
at the unfitness of things. His business was a failure, partly
because he dealt with a too rigid honesty, partly because of his
unstable nature, which left him at the mercy of whims and
obstinacies and airy projects. He did not risk the ordinary kind of
bankruptcy, but came down and down, until at length he was the only
workman in his own shop; then the shop itself had to be abandoned;
then he was searching for someone who would employ him,

Bob had been put to the die-sinker's craft; Clara was still going to
school, and had no thought of earning a livelihood--ominous state
of things, When it shortly became clear even to John Hewett that he
would wrong the girl if he did not provide her with some means of
supporting herself, she was sent to learn 'stamping' with the same
employer for whom her brother worked. The work was light; it would
soon bring in a little money. John declared with fierceness that his
daughter should never be set to the usual needle-slavery, and indeed
it seemed very unlikely that Clara would ever be fit for that
employment, as she could not do the simplest kind of sewing. In the
meantime the family kept changing their abode, till at length they
settled in Mrs. Peckover's house. All the best of their furniture
was by this time sold; but for the two eldest children, there would
probably have been no home at all. Bob, aged nineteen, earned at