Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1873-07-23
A Life LessOn; /;
AND ONE HARD TO LEARN.

] f"ANN VI a i'fiHE uNhIAs UdH Nttn uAllN an
hourly re.echoed for thousands of year.
and it is as sweet and fresh to-day as
was in that morning hour when the sun frs
shohe upon the love scene Of Eden. An
those lessons of life which lead to the tru
living, though they may have been preach
ed and oxpounded over and over again
can never be preached too much. The,
cannot be worn out. The need of thei
guidance will cease only when this life shal
have been swallowed up in the life eternal
So, though this same lesson has been S,
often illustrated and enforced, deem il NJ
unseemly repetition to tell the simple storl
which shall illustrate again know Al
bert Moore wel--and | knew Alice in III,
other years, also. and the lesson Of their lif,
which | now write down, eliminated under
my own observation.
Albert Moore, at the age of twenty-five
took Alice Warren for his wife, and fancied
that he was going to be as happy as it i.
given to ordinary mortals to be- Albert
had been in the army-had gone in at the
age Of twenty-iought through from Ball.
Bluff to Richmond-had come out with a
captain's commissioner had found hi,
way Immediately upon his discharge, to hi,
early love, and demanded the helping hand
in the commencement Of the peaceful life
Alice did not refuse. She had held him il
her heart hrough the dark years, and now
in the glow of the glad light, she Joined
hands with him happily and hopefully.
Albert had come from the army with
but little money but he had a good trade,
stout heart and strong pair Of hands,
and he borrowed no trouble for the future.
Alice had saved up a few hundred dollars
from her wages as a teacher, and when the
twain had become man and wife, they found,
upon a careful inventory, that they had
enough to furnish a small house comforta-
bly,. Albert proposed that they hire a ten
ement in the city, but Alice thought they
had better secure a pretty cottage in the
suburbs cottage which they perhaps in
time might make their own. Albert had
no disposition to argue the question, so the
cottage was found and secured. 1t was
a pleasant, rural location, and 80 connect
ed with the city by rail, that Albert found
no difficulty in going to and from his work.
shop.
During her Eve years experience in
school teaching, Alice had learned many
things, and having been an orphan from an
early age, she had made the problems of
real life one of her ehief studiee, and what
she had learned in the latter department
served her in her new station. After her
marriage she found Albert to be Just the
man she had known him to be in other
years. lie was kind to fault, free heart.
ed and generous ready always to answer
the call of friendship and to pluck the
flowers that bloomed to-day, regardless of
what might be matured TO bloom on the
morrow.
They bad been married few months
when Alice found that her husband was cut.
ting his garments from day to day, exact
ly according to bis daily supply Of cloth.
Not shred was he likely to save up for
the cutting of an extra garment for rainy
day to come.
"Albert,' she said to him one evening,
:. do you know we ought to be laying up
little somethingP
Albert looked up from his paper and
waited for his wife to elucidate.
81 think | heard you tell Mr.. Green
ough that you had no money-that you had
paid away your last dollar this isafternoou ?"
" Exactly, my dear; but you know to-
is pay day
"And You have spent your last months
earnings?"
Yes"
A brief silence ensucd, which Albert
broke;
"Oome, Alice, you have got something
on your mind Out with it, will listen "
And then Alice. in a smiling. pleasant
way, went on to tell that they ought to be
laying up something.
Albert smiled in turn and asked how
such a thing was to be done when it cost all
he could earn to live.
You earn three dollars and half
lay ~ said Alice.
"Yes."
"Georgc Somers only three dollars?"
"You are right"
"And yet he lives and does not run in
debt"
"But he is forced to deny himself many
little comforts we enjoy"
"And the one great comfort which we
might enjoy we are throwing away"
How is that, Aliee2n
"The comfort of little sum in the
bank, which We would sec growing toward
the answering of future wants"
Albert could not for the life of him see
how it was to he done, and Alice feared
that lesson of empty words might be vast
ed. She knew her husband well. She
knew that his ambition needed substan-
tial prop Never, of his own accord, would
he commence TO save by little. He did
not estimate money in that way. Had
some kind fairy dropped into his hand
a dvo-twenty bond for Eve hundred dollars,
he would have put It away gladly, and
with such nest-egg in the start he might
he might have sought to add to the store.
But he could see no hope in dollar bill,
and much less could he discover the nucleus
Of a grand saving of a Fifty cent scrip.
With Alice it was different. From her
earnings as school teacher, she
had, in less than FIVE years, saved three
hundred dollars, and the first savings she
had put by was a silver dime. She knew
what little by little could do, and she was
determined to show il to her husband. She
must be patient and persovering, and these
qualities she possessed in an eminent de-
gree. II was to be the grand undertaking
Of these first years of her welded life, and
to do i. she would bend every available
energy. She planned that, il possible, she
would get hold Of the odd fifty cents every
isy, or If she could not do that she would
DO the best she could
Generous, frank and loving, Albert was
an easy prey to the wies of wife as loyal
and loving as himself, lie gave her
money when she asked for il, and she ask.
ID for II when she thought he had any to
give.
And here let mo say that Alice knew
her husband would not run in debt That
was an evil both had arrayed themselves
against 10 the outset. When Albert's purse