“Oh! sir,” interrupted James, “if
you are going to say any thing disrespectful of my
father, do not say it to me; I beseech you, do not;
for I cannot bear it. Indeed I cannot, and will
not. He is the best of fathers!”
“I am sure he has the best of children; and
a greater blessing there cannot be in this world.
I was not going to say any thing disrespectful of
him: I was only going to lament that he should
be in an almshouse,” said Mr. Cleghorn.
“He has determined to remain there,” said
James, “till his children have earned money
enough to support him without hurting themselves.
I, my brother, and both my sisters, are to meet at
the almshouse on the first day of next month, which
is my father’s birthday; then we shall join all
our earnings together, and see what can be done.”
“Remember, you are my partner,” said Mr.
Cleghorn. “On that day you must take me
along with you. My good-will is part of your earnings,
and my good-will shall never be shown merely in words.”
It is now time to give some account of the Bettesworth
family. The history of their indolence, extravagance,
quarrels, and ruin, shall be given as shortly as possible.
The fortune left to them by Captain Bettesworth was
nearly twenty thousand pounds. When they got
possession of this sum, they thought it could never
be spent; and each individual of the family had separate
plans of extravagance, for which they required separate
supplies. Old Bettesworth, in his youth, had
seen a house of Squire Somebody, which had struck
his imagination, and he resolved he would build just
such another. This was his favourite scheme,
and he was delighted with the thoughts that it would
be realized. His wife and his sons opposed the
plan, merely because it was his; and consequently he
became more obstinately bent upon having his own way,
as he said, for once in his life. He was totally
ignorant of building; and no less incapable, from
his habitual indolence, of managing workmen: the
house might have been finished for one thousand five
hundred pounds; it cost him two thousand pounds:
and when it was done, the roof let in the rain in sundry
places, the new ceilings and cornices were damaged,
so that repairs and a new roof, with leaden gutters,
and leaden statues, cost him some additional hundreds.
The furnishing of the house Mrs. Bettesworth took upon
herself; and Sally took upon herself to find
fault with every article that her mother bought.
The quarrels were loud, bitter, and at last irreconcilable.
There was a looking-glass which the mother wanted
to have in one room, and the daughter insisted upon
putting it into another: the looking-glass was
broken between them in the heat of battle. The
blame was laid on Sally, who, in a rage, declared she
would not and could not live in the house with her
mother. Her mother was rejoiced to get rid of
her, and she went to live with a lieutenant’s
lady in the neighbourhood, with whom she had been acquainted
three weeks and two days. Half by scolding, half
by cajoling her father, she prevailed upon him to
give her two thousand pounds for her fortune; promising
never to trouble him any more for any thing.
