and I'd feel relieved when daylight came.
I'd be in first thing to see if they were all right; then I'd sleep till
dinner-time if it was Sunday or I had no work. But then I was run down
about that time: I was worried about some money for a wool-shed I put up
and never got paid for; and, besides, I'd been pretty wild before I met
Mary.

I was fighting hard then--struggling for something better. Both Mary and
I were born to better things, and that's what made the life so hard for
us.

Jim got on all right for a while: we used to watch him well, and have
his teeth lanced in time.

It used to hurt and worry me to see how--just as he was getting fat
and rosy and like a natural happy child, and I'd feel proud to take him
out--a tooth would come along, and he'd get thin and white and pale and
bigger-eyed and old-fashioned. We'd say, 'He'll be safe when he gets his
eye-teeth': but he didn't get them till he was two; then, 'He'll be safe
when he gets his two-year-old teeth': they didn't come till he was going
on for three.

He was a wonderful little chap--Yes, I know all about parents thinking
that their child is the best in the world. If your boy is small for his
age, friends will say that small children make big men; that he's a
very bright, intelligent child, and that it's better to have a bright,
intelligent child than a big, sleepy lump of fat. And if your boy is
dull and sleepy, they say that the dullest boys make the cleverest
men--and all the rest of it. I never took any notice of that sort of
clatter--took it for what it was worth; but, all the same, I don't
think I ever saw such a child as Jim was when he turned two. He was
everybody's favourite. They spoilt him rather. I had my own ideas about
bringing up a child. I reckoned Mary was too soft with Jim. She'd say,
'Put that' (whatever it was) 'out of Jim's reach, will you, Joe?' and
I'd say, 'No! leave it there, and make him understand he's not to have
it. Make him have his meals without any nonsense, and go to bed at a
regular hour,' I'd say. Mary and I had many a breeze over Jim. She'd
say that I forgot he was only a baby: but I held that a baby could be
trained from the first week; and I believe I was right.

But, after all, what are you to do? You'll see a boy that was brought up
strict turn out a scamp; and another that was dragged up anyhow (by the
hair of the head, as the saying is) turn out well. Then, again, when
a child is delicate--and you might lose