Being, as you may say, the centre of the story, for Milly Parable and my
son, Rupert, though they bulk large in the tale, be less than me, it's
difficult to set it out. And the affair itself growed into such a proper
tangle at the finish that my pen may fail afore the end; but I'll stick so
near as memory serves me to the facts, and, though others may not shine
too bright afore I finish, the tale won't cast no discredit upon me in any
fairminded ear.
I married at twenty and had four children and they was grown up, all but
Albert, before I lost John Stocks, my first husband. Albert, top flower of
the basket, he died as a bright child of ten year old. His brain was too
big for his head and expanded and killed him. And that left Jane, my
first, married to Ford, the baker, and John, called after his father, and
known to me as 'Mother's Joy,' and Rupert, who got to be called 'Mother's
Misfortune,' because he was a shifty and tolerable wicked boy with lawless
manners and no thought for any living creature but self. John was good as
gold, but a thought simple. He married and had five childer in four years
and never knew where to turn for a penny. But the good will and big heart
of the man was always there, and if he could have helped his parents and
come by money honest, he'd have certainly done it. A glutton for work and
in church twice every Sunday; but his work was hedge-tacking and odd jobs,
and he never done either in a way to get any lasting fame.
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