And then, when my daughter-in-law brings this other one into the
world, her last but one will be thrown on my wife's hands for a month,
at least. So your children worry us and overburden us. We don't like to
see children neglected; and when you think of the accidents that may
happen to them for lack of watching, your mind's never at rest. So you
must have another wife, and I another daughter-in-law. Think it over, my
boy. I've already warned you more than once; time flies, and the years
won't wait for you. You owe it to your children and to us, who want to
have everything go right in the house, to marry as soon as possible."
"Well, father," the son-in-law replied, "if you really want me to do it,
I must gratify you. But I don't propose to conceal from you that it will
cause me a great deal of annoyance, and that I'd about as lief drown
myself. You know what you've lost, and you don't know what you may
find. I had an excellent wife, a good-looking wife, sweet and brave,
good to her father and mother, good to her husband, good to her
children, a good worker, in the fields or in the house, clever about her
work, good at everything, in fact; and when you gave her to me, when I
took her, it wasn't one of the conditions that I should forget her if I
had the bad luck to lose her.
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