"
The other took the paper, and conned its contents with a deliberation
that proceeded partly from his caution, and partly from the unlucky
circumstance of his education having been much neglected when a youth.
The time occupied in this tedious examination was employed by Harvey in
gathering together certain articles which he intended to include in the
stores that were to leave the habitation with himself. Katy had already
inquired of the peddler whether the deceased had left a will; and she
saw the Bible placed in the bottom of a new pack, which she had made
for his accommodation, with a most stoical indifference; but as the six
silver spoons were laid carefully by its side, a sudden twinge of her
conscience objected to such a palpable waste of property, and she
broke silence.
"When you marry, Harvey, you may miss those spoons."
"I never shall marry."
"Well, if you don't there's no occasion to make rash promises, even to
yourself. One never knows what one may do, in such a case. I should like
to know, of what use so many spoons can be to a single man; for my part,
I think it is a duty for every man who is well provided, to have a wife
and family to maintain."
At the time when Katy expressed this sentiment, the fortune of women in
her class of life consisted of a cow, a bed, the labors of their own
hands in the shape of divers pillowcases, blankets, and sheets, with,
where fortune was unusually kind, a half dozen silver spoons.
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