Who knows but he might have broke out again, and brought upon us what he did before, or worse?
For my part, I should never have been without the fear; night and morning it would always have stood before me; not to be driven away.

As it is, I am at rest." She--the wife--took her apron from her eyes and looked at him with a sort of amazed anger.
"Gum! do you forget that he had left off his evil ways, and was coming home to be a comfort to us ?" "No, I don't forget it," returned Mr.Gum.

"But who was to say that the mood would last?
He might have got through his gold, however much it was, and then--.

As it is, Nance Gum, we can sleep quiet in our beds, free from _that_ fear." Clerk Gum was not, on the whole, a model of suavity in the domestic fold.
The first blow that had fallen upon him seemed to have affected his temper; and his helpmate knew from experience that whenever he called her "Nance" his mood was at its worst.
Suppressing a sob, she spoke reproachfully.
"It's my firm belief, Gum, and has been all along, that you cared more for your good name among men than you did for the boy." "Perhaps I did," he answered, by way of retort.

"At any rate, it might have been better for him in the long-run if we--both you and me--hadn't cared for him quite so foolishly in his childhood; we spared the rod and we spoiled the child.