The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-12-31
THE HAPPY NEW YEAR.
: Happy New Year :"


4 bright face looked into the cham
ber; sweet voice rang through it in
zones OF music.
''Happy New Year, darling'
And Mr.. Ellis stopped to kiss the
child. But the kiss he gave was not fer
vent. 1t was kind and gentle, but not
loving.
A pair of large blue orbs looked up at
him i'll kind of hurt surprise. Then,
as # she felt repealed, the child, after
standing for moment or two III a shy,
embarrassed way, went ont Of the cham
her and left her father alone.
Mr.. Ellis was less comfortable in mind
after she went out than before she came
in. 4 ray of heart-sunshine had swept
into the room, and though he had failed
to perceive its warmth, it was colder
and darker after its withdrawal. He
breathed out involuntarily heavy sigh.
1t was not a happy new year. In fact,
tie new years came in always with an
added weight Of care, annoyance and
encouragement for Mr.. Ellis, each
heavier and more discouraging than the
one that preceded.
Happy New Year % cried one child
after another, rs it looked into his
room or met him on the stairs. " Happy
New Year" greeted him from many
veices.
But 1t was not happy new year. Oh,
no Mr.. Ellis's new years were no
longer happy ones. Why! Let us go
back little.
Just ten years before the time in which
he comes before the reader, James Ellis,
then clerk OH a salary of one thousand
dollars, took to himself wife ; but in
doing so, he made one mistake, and that
was going in debt for the furniture of
MS little rented house. For over three
years he had been getting salary of
p one thousand dollars, and out of this had
saved scarcely enough to buy his we'd
ding suit and the marriage ring. How,
on the same income, he was to support
a wife, besides himself, and pay the five
hundred dollars it cost to furnish the
house, was one of the mysteries in finance
he had not stopped to solve.
1t is no matter OF surprise that the
first New Years Day following the mar
riagc Of Mr.. Ellis was not for him very
happy one. He had dear little wife,
and was very fond of her and she was
could be to make home the pleasantest
fDIacc for him in all the world. But there
,hcd been a grave error IN the way their
new life was begun, and error OF any and
every kind surely works for all its meas
IRE of disguietude, pain or disaster.
There isno escape.
The first New Years day brought in to
MI. Ellis unsettled accounts for over
one hundred and fifty dollars, besides
the five hundred dollars he had
borrowed from friend to meet his furni-
ture bills. These accounts came In from
the grocer, the dry goods merchant, the
,corn-dealer and others, with whom bills
had run mp that might have been settled
with the cash he had let slip through his
hands for articles OF ornament they did
not need, or for various little self-indul-
rences. II there had been rigid sys-
tenn of cash down for every article that
was purchased, and Just self-denial in
the matter of things not actually need
full to comfort, that first New Years
Day would have found Mr.. Ellis IN far
different and happier state of mind.
The true remedy was neither seen nor
adopted.
81 must have larger income" said
AFR. Ellis. II he had said, ." must
adopt new system and practice closer
economy" the case would have been
more hopeful.
On the next day Mr.. Ellis asked to
have his salary increased. business had
not been very good for the past season,
and there was some demur but he was
q faithful and intelligent clerk, and, in
view of this, two hundred dollars were
added to his salary-nOt more, really,
than the deficits of the last six months
vet enough to cause our young friend
TO feel much elated, and to lure him
into 2 freer instead Of n closer style of
living.
The second New Years Day brought
another dhy of reckoning. A baby had
been born, and with this sunbeam that
came brightly into their home came
Aiso added expenses, aud consequent
ancrease of debt. The original five hun
-ired dollars borrowed 70 furnish the