ing him married, and having children again to care for.
You know women always will busy themselves about others. As for me, I
thought of him working near my bench, and singing his new songs; for he
has learnt music, and is one of the best singers at the Orpheon.

"A dream, sir, truly! Directly the bird was fledged, he took to flight,
and remembers neither father nor mother. Yesterday, for instance, was
the day we expected him; he should have come to supper with us. No
Robert to-day, either! He has had some plan to finish, or some bargain
to arrange, and his old parents are put down last in the accounts, after
the customers and the joiner's work. Ah! if I could have guessed how it
would have turned out! Fool! to have sacrificed my likings and my money,
for nearly twenty years, to the education of a thankless son! Was it
for this I took the trouble to cure myself of drinking, to break with
my friends, to become an example to the neighborhood? The jovial good
fellow has made a goose of himself. Oh! if I had to begin again! No, no!
you see women and children are our bane. They soften our hearts; they
lead us a life of hope and affection; we pass a quarter of our lives in
fostering the growth of a grain of corn which is to be everything to us
in our old age, and when the harvest-time comes--good-night, the ear is
empty!"

While he was speaking, Michael's voice became hoarse, his eyes fierce,
and his lips quivered. I wished to answer him, but I could only think of
commonplace consolations, and I remained silent. The joiner pretended he
needed a tool, and left me.

Poor father! Ah! I know those moments of temptation when virtue has
failed to reward us, and we regret having obeyed her! Who has not felt
this weakness in hours of trial, and who has not uttered, at least once,
the mournful exclamation of Brutus?

But if virtue is only a word, what is there then in life that is true
and real? No, I will not believe that goodness is in vain! It does not
always give the happiness we had hoped for, but it brings some other. In
the world everything is ruled by order, and has its proper and necessary
consequences, and virtue cannot be the sole exception to the general
law. If it had been prejudicial to those who practised it, experience
would have avenged them; but experience has, on the contrary, made it
more universal and more holy. We only accuse it of being a faithless
debtor because we demand an immediate payment, and one appare