He passed away very easy, not long after this, just in time to save his
credit, so that no one but Peter Broo and captain Muff gave a ha, ha, or
a smile when his death was announced. The baby’s tooth stood for ever
uppermost in their eyes; and when they told the story, which they did
every day for a twelvemonth, they got the thundering big tooth to the
size of an elephant’s.
He was missed at home, particularly when the window shutters were to be
latched, which office Hannah French now undertook, and the first sound
of mirth that was heard in the house was from her. The baby’s teeth all
came out finely; and one day as she put on her spectacles to look at
them, she gave one of her little deaf laughs. Mrs. Bangs asked her what
she laughed at, but Hannah French was too “cute” to tell. It was what
follows that passed through her brain and produced the laugh at the end
of it.
“I am glad,” thought she, “the old man went off as he did, for the
baby’s mouth would have gone from ear to ear, by his grandfather’s
constantly pulling it open to see what thundering big tooth was coming
out next; and the baby was so used to have his mouth stretched open,
that whenever he heard his grandfather’s voice on the stairs, he used,
of his own accord, to throw his head back and open his mouth as wide as
possible.” Then it was, as this passed through her mind, that Hannah
French laughed; but it would not have done to tell Mrs. Bangs of it.
Every one of Mrs. Bangs’s thirteen daughters married, and every one had
sons and daughters. I have something pleasant to say of all of them,
though not so much as I have said of Fanny. She lives still, and is
loved by her husband and family as dearly as ever.
Mrs. Bangs would not have one of her grandsons called Christopher,
through fear of their hating her as they grew up. “I had such a deal of
trouble about naming you all,” said she, to her thirteen daughters,
“that I am resolved my grandchildren shall not be named after kit or kin
of mine.” Whether she meant this as a pun, or only as an old saw, I do
not know; I should rather suspect the latter; but we will let that
alone, ‘tis no concern of ours.
THE THREAD AND NEEDLE STORE.
Martin Barton, a respectable, well looking lad, entered Mr. Daly’s
thread and needle store at the age of fourteen. He was a faultless and
enduring creature, always at his post, and serving out his appointed
time—seven years—without giving his master the least cause of complaint.
The morning of his birthday was his day of freedom, and although Mr.
Daly knew that this day must come some time or other, yet he was quite
unprepared for it. Great, therefore, would have been his sorrow, if
Martin Barton had not, in announcing that his apprenticeship was
expired, asked his consent to marry Miss Letty Daly—his only child.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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