delivering them more agreeably; nor do I believe any one possessed of a
faithfuller or braver friend. And sure as this friendship is sweetened
with more delicacy and tenderness, so is it confirmed by dearer pledges
than can attend the closest male alliance; for what union can be so fast
as our common interest in the fruits of our embraces? Perhaps, sir, you
are not yourself a father; if you are not, be assured you cannot
conceive the delight I have in my little ones. Would you not despise me
if you saw me stretched on the ground, and my children playing round me?
"I should reverence the sight," quoth Adams; "I myself am now the father
of six, and have been of eleven, and I can say I never scourged a child
of my own, unless as his schoolmaster, and then have felt every stroke
on my own posteriors. And as to what you say concerning women, I have
often lamented my own wife did not understand Greek."--The gentleman
smiled, and answered, he would not be apprehended to insinuate that his
own had an understanding above the care of her family; on the contrary,
says he, my Harriet, I assure you, is a notable housewife, and few
gentlemen's housekeepers understand cookery or confectionery better; but
these are arts which she hath no great occasion for now: however, the
wine you commended so much last night at supper was of her own making,
as is indeed all the liquor in my house, except my beer, which falls to
my province. "And I assure you it is as excellent," quoth Adams, "as
ever I tasted." We formerly kept a maid-servant, but since my girls have
been growing up she is unwilling to indulge them in idleness; for as the
fortunes I shall give them will be very small, we intend not to breed
them above the rank they are likely to fill hereafter, nor to teach them
to despise or ruin a plain husband. Indeed, I could wish a man of my own
temper, and a retired life, might fall to their lot; for I have
experienced that calm serene happiness, which is seated in content, is
inconsistent with the hurry and bustle of the world. He was proceeding
thus when the little things, being just risen, ran eagerly towards him