You won’t have a beauty there, said she to Hansli, before the young girl; nor much to crow about, in what she has got. But all that is of no consequence. It isn’t beauty that makes the pot boil; and as for money, there’s many a man who wouldn’t marry a girl unless she was rich, who has had to pay his father-in-law’s debts in the end. When one has health, and work, in one’s arms, one gets along always. I suppose (turning to the girl) you have got two good chemises and two gowns, so that you won’t be the same on Sunday and work-days? Oh yes, said the young girl; you needn’t give yourself any trouble about that. I’ve one chemise quite new, and two good ones besides,—and four others which, in truth, are rather ragged. But my mother said I should have another; and my father, that he would make me my wedding shoes, and they should cost me nothing. And with that I’ve a very nice godmother, who is sure to give me something fine;—perhaps a saucepan, or a frying-stove, [27]—who knows? without counting that perhaps I shall inherit something from her some day. She has some children, indeed, but they may die. Perfectly satisfied on both sides, but especially the girl, to whom Hansli’s house, so perfectly kept in order, appeared a palace in comparison with her own home, full of children and scraps of leather, they separated, soon to meet again and quit each other no more. As no soul made the slightest objection, and the preparations were easy,—seeing that new shoes and a new chemise are soon stitched together,—within a month, Hansli was no more alone on his way to Thun. And the old cart went again as well as ever. And they lived happily ever after? You shall hear. The story is not at an end; note only, in the present phase of it, this most important point, that Hansli does not think of his wife as an expensive luxury, to be refused to himself unless under irresistible temptation. It is only the modern Pall-Mall-pattern Englishman who must ‘abstain from the luxury of marriage’ if he be wise. Hansli thinks of his wife, on the contrary, as a useful article, which he cannot any longer get on without. He gives us, in fact, a final definition of proper wifely quality,—“She will draw the cart better than a cow could.” FORS CLAVIGERA. LETTER XL.