Captain Rexford had no fortune with his second wife; and their children numbered seven daughters and three sons.

It was natural that the expenses of so large a family should have proved too much for a slender income in an English town where a certain style of living had been deemed a necessity.

When, further, a mercantile disaster had swept away the larger part of this income, the anxious parents had felt that there was nothing left for their children but a choice between degrading dependence on the bounty of others and emigration.

From the new start in life which the latter course would give they had large hopes.
Accordingly, they gathered together all that they had, and, with a loan from a richer relative, purchased a house and farm in a locality where they were told their children would not wholly lack educational opportunities or society.

This move of theirs was heroic, but whether wise or unwise remained to be proved by the result of indefinite years.
The extent of their wealth was now this new property, an income which, in proportion to their needs, was a mere pittance, and the debt to the richer relative.
The men who came to call on their new neighbour, and congratulate him on his choice of a farm, did not know how small was the income nor how big the debt, yet even they shook their heads dubiously as they thought of their own difficulties, and remarked to each other that such a large family was certainly a great responsibility.
"I wonder," said one to another, "if Rexford had an idea in coming here that he would marry his daughters easily.