Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1859-09-27

90
The little thing had expected anew dress.
which had been promised her, and she
felt badly because She had iot got it.
"'Wait, urged my wifs, as the child
sobbed in her disappointment. Papa
hasn't got the money nows but he'll have
some by-and-by, and you shall have q
pretty drese. Poor papa has to work
hard.'"
.'The word smote me q The heart. /
could not tafford dollar 10 dress my little
child. but could afford any amount for
the useless entertainmentQf 9thers? The
dollar which my needy VIII could not get
when she asked for it, 4 RWay almost
twice fold for nothing. Rtllsl ~.
IA lesson. / opened my rs
.SNf epGsl. ID ] "a d \ s5sy j - !. Il u
! afforded my wife the dollar, but | could
not afford any more for the beer man. /
had not dreamed how much ! was vast
ing, and When stopped that leak and al
lowed my funds to flow in their proper
channel, soon found that l could afford
every reasonable comfort my wife and
children needed. So stick to the princi-
pie which has proved SO beneficial to my
wife and family. Ah-what's that?-
There's an animal in your garden, Walter"
They had reached the garden fence, and
by the dim starlight Walter could see a
horned beast tfampling among his sweet
corn. The bars had either been left down
or hooked down, and stray COW had got
in. They drove her out, and then Niles
went home Walter saw the beast had
done considerable damage, but he was not
angry, for he had something more to think
of. He went and set down beneath an
apple tree and pondered.
"Bless me, if he hasn't put the case
down about square!' he said to himself at
the end of some minutes of meditation
"Let me see," he pursued--"th there's
sixty-s seven cents for chowder-ffty cents
for ale-ffty for soda. AMI that within
the last three day. A dollar and sixty
seven cents! Is it possible? Over a
hundred dollars year! And yet can't
afford two dollars for gate, nor five dol
lars that my family may have religious in
struction for year. Walter Gray-yoa
had better turn oVer a neW leaf!"
And Walter Gray did turn over a new
leaf. On the very next day he did two
things, thereby astonishing two parties -
He had a new gate made for the entrance
to the garden, and thereby astonished his
wife; and he refused to 'toss up" for the
ale, and thereby astonished crowd ofex-
pectant thirsty ones. For month he
pursued this course, and by the expira-
ton of that time, he could fully appre-
ciate the new blessings that were dawn
ing upon him. He discovered that he
could afford everything which the comfort
of his family demanded; and arriving at
this result he had only cut loose from
things which he really could not afford.
1t was a wonder to him how he could
have been SO foolish. When, at the
end of the year, he had paid his note,
and had ninety.tw dollars left. he felt at
first as though there must be some mis-
take; but when his wife went over their
household expenditures with him, and
showed him that all they needed had been
bought and paid for, he saw just how it
was. He saw that for years he had been
wasting his substance and depriving him
self and loved ones of the comforts they
needed--not Intentionally, but through
the strange mistake that leads thousands
in the same course. But he did SO no
more.
Sometimes, even now, Walter Gray
says" Can't afford IT," and says it very
emphatically, too. But it is not when
his wife or children ask for comfort and
joy, nor when the needy poor ask for help
and charity-for he can well afford all that;
but it is when the wild speculation, or the
loose companion asks him to engage in
some game Of hazard which may rob him
self and family of their substance. Then
he says-and he repeats it if need be
"cAN'T AFFORD IT'