Not only would
she buy nothing for which she could not pay down, having often in
consequence to go without proper food, but, even when she had a
little in hand, would live like an anchorite. She grew very thin;
and, in-deed, if she had not been of the healthiest, could not
have stood her own treatment many weeks.
Her baby soon began to show suffering, but this did not make her
alter her way, or drive her to appeal to Tom. She was ignorant of
the simplest things a mother needs to know, and never imagined
her abstinence could hurt her baby. So long as she went on
nursing him, it was all the same, she thought. He cried so much,
that Tom made it a reason with himself, and indeed gave it as one
to Letty, for not coming home at night: the child would not let
him sleep; and how was he to do his work if he had not his
night's rest? It mattered little with semi-mechanical professions
like medicine or the law, but how was a man to write articles
such as he wrote, not to mention poetry, except he had the repose
necessary to the redintegration of his exhausted brain? The baby
went on crying, and the mother's heart was torn. The woman of the
house said he must be already cutting his teeth, and recommended
some devilish sirup. Letty bought a bottle with the next money
she got, and thought it did him good-because, lessening his
appetite, it lessened his crying, and also made him sleep more
than he ought.
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