“So much the worse, my son, and that’s why I would like you to have a wife with brains to take my place when I am no longer here.  You have never been willing to look into our accounts, and that might make trouble between you and my son, when you don’t have me to keep the peace between you and tell you what is coming to each of you.”

“May you live many years, Pere Maurice!  But don’t you worry about what will happen when you are gone; I shall never dispute with your son.  I trust Jacques as I trust myself, and as I have no property of my own, as everything that can possibly come to me, comes to me as your daughter’s husband and belongs to our children, I can be easy in my mind and so can you; Jacques would never try to defraud his sister’s children for his own, as he loves them almost equally.”

“You are right in that, Germain.  Jacques is a good son, a good brother, and a man who loves the truth.  But Jacques may die before you, before your children are grown up, and one must always have a care not to leave minors without a head to give them good advice and arrange their differences.  Otherwise the lawyers interfere, set them at odds with each other, and make them eat everything up in lawsuits.  So we ought not to think of bringing another person into our house, man or woman, without saying to ourselves that that person may some day have to direct the conduct and manage the business of thirty or more children, grandchildren, sons-in-law, and daughters-in-law.  No one knows how much a family may grow, and when the hive is too full and the time has come to swarm, every one thinks about carrying off his honey.  When I took you for my son-in-law, although my daughter was rich and you poor, I never reproached her for choosing you.  I saw you were a good worker, and I knew well that the best sort of riches for country people like us is a good pair of arms and a heart like yours.  When a man brings those things into a family, he brings enough.  But it’s different with a woman:  her work in the house is to keep, not to get.  Besides, now that you are a father and are looking for a wife, you must remember that your new children, having no sort of claim on the inheritance of your first wife’s children, would be left in want if you should die, unless your wife had some property of her own.  And then, it would cost something to feed the children you are going to add to our little colony.  If that should fall on us alone, we would take care of them, never fear, and without complaining; but everybody’s comfort would be diminished, and the first children would have to take their share of the privations.  When families increase beyond measure, and their means do not increase in proportion, then want comes, however bravely we may struggle against it.  This is all I have to say, Germain; think it over, and try to make yourself agreeable to Widow Guerin; for her good management and her crowns will bring us aid for the present and peace of mind for the future.”