So he took to real weeping; and there was not a friend that came to give him consolation, but went away with the impression that he had been one of the most loving of husbands, and was one of the tenderest of men. Among those visiters, were two or three acquaintances of his deceased wife, and one or two of them possessed even more than twelve hundred and fifty. So, Mr Caleb, seeing through his wet eyes that his grief took with them very well, continued the indications--a very easy process, seeing he had only to look to the debit and credit of his speculation to make the tears drop as fast as hailstones. "It's a heavy loss you have sustained, Mr Crabbin," said Miss Jean Gibbs. "Very heavy loss," rejoined he, with emphasis on the principal word. "But the children are a consolation." "To be sure they are," answered Caleb; "and I have six of them, and now, you see, all without a female to take charge of them." The hint did not take, as the saying goes; and Miss Jean having departed, and Miss Isabella Gentle, who had also a competency, having arrived, he tried the same plan with her; for his spirit for speculation was still strong; and he expected, yet, to make a far more successful hit than he had even done in the case of Miss Belinda Yellowlees. Now, Miss Isabella was just as sincere in her admiration of his sorrow as was Miss Jean Gibbs; and all that was gone over about the loss he had sustained, and the consolation of the children, and the feeling he exhibited, as became a good husband and a loving father. But the moment he made a hint about the poor creatures having no female to look after them, the same effect was as evident as in the case of Miss Jean--for Miss Isabella, for a certainty, did not seem to relish it. "All this may come of my being too eager and too soon," said he. "But I fear these six children will be stumbling-blocks in the way of my farther enterprise; for a woman will not give so much for a man with six children, as she would do for himself. Had my second transaction come up to the first, I might to-day have been an independent man. But a third may do better; and, if it don't, it shall not, by Hymen, be Mr Caleb Crabbin that will be to blame." Nor, indeed, could it be alleged that he spoke falsely; for, as soon as the proper time came, he set about a very vigorous search for a third helpmate in every direction where he thought he had any chance. He tried again Miss Jean Gibbs and Miss Isabella Gentle; but the children formed an objection which they could not get over. "I will never marry a man with six children--no--nor five, nor four, nor three, nor two," said Miss Jean. "I would far rather live and die an old maid, than become the slave of another woman's family," was the reply of Miss Isabella. And then he tried Miss Julia Cross, who had something of a lying stock, though not much, and her answer was just as peremptory.