Three of them "was took" by scarlet fever, then one of a "decline," then one or two by other illnesses.

Only four reached man and womanhood.

One had gone to Australia, but he never was one to write, and after a year or two, Betty gathered, he had seemed to melt away into the great distance.

Two girls had married, and Mrs.
Welden could not say they had been "comf'able." They could barely feed themselves and their swarms of children.

The other son had never been steady like his father.