The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-06-30
A POCKET MEASURE.

have been working over that wonderful
box every evening for week l believe
you are a miser, and that box is to hoard
up your treasures in"
ii "Why, / Just as soon tell you about
\ this box, he said. You'll laugh, of
course, but l don't suppose that will
hurt me.
Il won't laugh bit, unless it is
something funny"
"Well, it's money-box. "
"a money-box! / told you you were
going to be a miser.n
"Well, I'm not, said Rufus, laughing
I'm planning to spend it, not to
keep il; but like to be sort of system
attic about things. You see, l know Just
what Tn worth nowadays. There's
about six months in the year that / am
earning money; and, in one way and
another, | earn about sixty dollars, be-
sides my board Now, it happens that
there are ten things for which l need to
spend that money, and, as nearly | can
calculate, it might be equally divided
between them; so, thinking it all over,
| concluded that the systematic way
would be to have box with ten COM
partments, all labeled, and drop the
money in, one dollar at time, maybe,
or ten cents at q time, Just as happen
TO be paid"
'Thats real nice idea" said Eva,
admiringly, "but can't imagine how
you can have ten different things, for
which you need to spend money regu-
larly. Now, have a hundred different
ways of spending money, but hardly
any of them are regular" Here she
gave one of her merriest laughs.
"Oh, well, it is different with me-"
explained Rufus. You see, don't
know much about spending money for
/ things | might happen to like to buy;
l have to spend mine for the things that
must be bought anyhow; and so it's
easier to calculate."
"Stin," persisted Eva, II don't know
how you make ten.n
We'll, I'll tell you.n There was
little flush on Rufus face, but Eva
looked so sober and so interested that
he determined to trust her. 'In the
first place, there's mother; shall pain
her name on this first department, and
one-tenth of every thing ever earn is
to pop in there. Then there's clothes
for me, they will take another tenth.
e tenth for clothes! That will be
| only six dollars a year, Rufus Briggs
! Do you mean to dress in birch bark,
that You think You can make six dollars
year do it?' -I---1
"Well,n said Rufus, in determined
tone, ''when fellow has to, you know,
1 why he has to; besides, that's only for
| general clothes; I,yergot department
/ here for boots and shoes, and another
! for shirts. and if have to borrow from
| one Of those departments for the other,
| why, it will do no harm.
But still Eva laughed; she knew that
six dollars, or twelve dollars, or eighteen
/ dollars in year were of no account so
! far as clothes were concerned. Didn't
! she wear clothesP She knew what they
cost. WN3 T lEM rNtat
"They can't cost more than you We
| got to buy them WITH Rufus said
firmly, and went on with his plan.
There are Mamie and Fannie, my two
little sisters; I've never given them a
department. OF course, mother will
spend the money for them, but kind
! of like to put it in their own name.
Then here's the corner for books; /
need school books and paper and pens,
and all such things you know; but they
must all come out of this general fund
Then here's the house, keeping. / have
a corner for that, because mother must
be helped, you know; that place
where her name is means for
her own private use, and here 8
the rent corner; mother has
hard times bringing that in every
month. Now you see, I've got nine,
and haven't looked out for sickness at
all; that troubled me at first, but then |
concluded if any of us were sick we
shouldn't need so many clothes nor
books, and that it would even itself out;
so, here's my last corner" and very
carefully Rufus printed the word, abe
Incidence, over this accompaniment, n
"Be-neY-o-lence.N spelled out Eva,
and now she was too much astonished
to laugh. "Why, Rufus Briggs! just
as though you could afford to give six
dollars year to benevolence.
"Why, it's only tenth, said Rufus,
stoutly; 'and it's got to be divided
up more than any of the others, there
are so many things to give for,
'sThe idealp said Eva. just then her
aunt called her, and she went away
thinking about the wonderful box with
its many compartments, and only sixty
dollars to put into them all. And six
of them to give awayP' she said again.