No manner could have been less like that of Punch triumphant than
Caleb's, but his talents did not lie in finding phrases, though he was
very particular about his letter-writing, and regarded his wife as a
treasury of correct language.
There was almost an uproar among the children now, and Mary held up the
cambric embroidery towards her mother entreatingly, that it might be
put out of reach while the boys dragged her into a dance. Mrs. Garth,
in placid joy, began to put the cups and plates together, while Caleb
pushing his chair from the table, as if he were going to move to the
desk, still sat holding his letters in his hand and looking on the
ground meditatively, stretching out the fingers of his left hand,
according to a mute language of his own. At last he said--
"It's a thousand pities Christy didn't take to business, Susan. I
shall want help by-and-by. And Alfred must go off to the
engineering--I've made up my mind to that." He fell into meditation and
finger-rhetoric again for a little while, and then continued: "I shall
make Brooke have new agreements with the tenants, and I shall draw up a
rotation of crops. And I'll lay a wager we can get fine bricks out of
the clay at Bott's corner. I must look into that: it would cheapen the
repairs. It's a fine bit of work, Susan! A man without a family would
be glad to do it for nothing."
"Mind you don't, though," said his wife, lifting up her finger.
"No, no; but it's a fine thing to come to a man when he's seen into the
nature of business: to have the chance of getting a bit of the country
into good fettle, as they say, and putting men into the right way with
their farming, and getting a bit of good contriving and solid building
done--that those who are living and those who come after will be the
better for. I'd sooner have it than a fortune. I hold it the most
honorable work that is." Here Caleb laid down his letters, thrust his
fingers between the buttons of his waistcoat, and sat upright, but
presently proceeded with some awe in his voice and moving his head
slowly aside--"It's a great gift of God, Susan."
"That it is, Caleb," said his wife, with answering fervor. "And it
will be a blessing to your children to have had a father who did such
work: a father whose good work remains though his name may be
forgotten." She could not say any more to him then about the pay.