Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1872-05-25
SUNBURY, Pa. SATURDAY MORNING, MAY 25 1872

Tic tOld SK1ud he guessed he would look 1t
over; and on his way homeward he ex-
amined it; but he could find nothing
wrong-nothing wrong in the itcms-but
the sum total was poser; twenty-six dol
lars and forty-two cents
For long time after he had reached
home he tried to convince Hattie that
nothing was the matter with him but at
length he plucked up courage, and drew
! forth Skidd's bill. lie had expected that
| his wife would be paralyzed. But on the
contrary, she only smiled and said it was
all right.
"All right !" echoed George.
"All right, so far as Mr.. Skidd is con-
cerned," said Hattie. You remember
what told you once before, and now let's
sit down and cat supper, and then we will
| look the matter over.''
| And after supper they went at the work,
| Hattie took the bill, and piece OF blank
| paper, and followed the items down with
her pencil.
| First" she said, ''is box of figs, at
! fifteen cents a pound. 1t was very cheap
no doubt; but the eight pounds came to
dollar and twenty-five cents. Had you
been required to pay cash, you would not
have bought them. You would, at least,
have asked me if liked them, and / should
have told you, no. Next we have n gallon
Of golden syrup, which we did not need,
and for which you would not have paid
cash without consulting me-"
And so she went on, and at the end she
had cut down the bill, by throwing out
articles which they had not absolutely
needed. to less than fifteen dollars.
y dollar here did not seem much to
George and dollar aud half there
and then sovcnty-iive cents and then only
fifty cents; but there had been twenty
visits to the store during the past month,
and the aggregate of these trivial sums
was considerable.
George saw the whole thing, and he
knew that his wife had been right from the
first
Don't say q word" he said II see the
mistake. But I'll have to work around in
the right track by degrees"
GLOW SO, George -
why l haven't money enough left of
my months wages to pay this bill so l
shall be utterly unable to enter upon the
cash principle at present"
There is no difficulty in that direction"
said Hattie. Il have not spent quite all
my little capital. l had already fixed it for
n bit OF nest egg and don't know that it
could be put to Il better use than the lay
ing Of foundation for cash payments.
At any rate, George, let us try it for
awhile"
George kissed his wife and said she was
n blessing aud he promised that he woald
follow her advice in the future. lie took
the money which she had to give, and held
it as loan, which he was to return at the
earliest possible moment and he felt an
ambition, too, to see how speedily he could
do il.
And on Monday morning the new rule
OF Lille went into operation. George paid
Mr.. Skidd's bill, and told him that hereaf-
ter he should pay cash for everything he
bought. The store keeper poOh-poo'd, and
said there was no need of it.
BLESS you, my boy, had as leave trust
you as not"
Il do not doubt it, Mr. Skidd, but pre-
fer not to be trusted. L would rather CON
sumo my own groceries than to consume
yours. \ bill is an evil at best, and |
don't choose to have evils growing on my
hands if can help it,"
Mr.. SkiGd saw very plainly that his |
customers vision was clear, and he said
no more.
On the evening of that very Monday, |
Mr.. Skidd exhibited to George some extra /
nice preserves, and the young mans first
impulse was to order a pot Of them /; but
the taking out of his wallet, and the break
minder and he concluded that lie could
get along without them. Said he to him
self:
"These seemingly trivial sums, if l save
them, will, at the end of the month, add
up as greatly in my favor as they have
heretofore added against me-
And he found it So And he found one
thing more in his favor from cash pay
ments which he had not particularly count
ed upon. AS he had the money in his
hand to pay for the articles he had planned
to purchase, he could buy 1t where he could !
get it the best and the cheapest. Traders
are not willing to lose cash customers and
they do only the fair and honest thing
when they sell TO such customers cheaper
than the others. Not only is the interest
Of the money on account an important
item in the aggregate Of many accounts,
but the keeping of that account in the day
book and ledger was an expense. George
very soon learned all this and he found
that even Mr.. Skidd sold to him during
this month of cash payment cheaper than
he had sold during the previous month.
And as the months rolled on, George
Brown opened no more accounts with ira
ders. He found that in paying cash he
was constantly reminded of the value of
each separate sum as he counted it out,
and was hence not likely to purchase what
he did not need. Aud then he had n goal
ahead which he had determined to reach
as speedily as possible and by his system
of cash payments he could estimate at the
close Of every day the gain he was making
toward the desired end. And in two
months he paid what he had borrowed of
his wife, aud she put it in the common
fund and in five years his home was his
owed