Morris tribune., 1885-11-25
A Queer Savings Bank.

"a penny saved is penny earned"
they say. But what if it is put away
so carefully that you never find the saw
ings again? do not speak now of the
banks whose defaulting cashiers either
cut their threats after the deposits are
missing or run away with them, but
those funny little episodes where the
good housewife has some store which
she sets by, too much to make common
property, and hides it never to find it
at least not till housekeeping time,
when all hidden things come to light,
and some old fashioned receptacle
turns up and the missing object is there.
These things have happened time and
again, and implicated some good folks
too, who, whether they knew it or not,
were under ban until the missing object
was found. Everybody can recall some
experiences of the kind, but [ do not
think of any funnier one than hap
pened to Granny H., favorite old lady
of mine. Granny H. kept candy
store. 1t would be hard to find any
such at the present day, even in San
Francisco, for the house was more than
a hundred years old, in an ancient city,
and it was so badly sunken that the
two steps led f. ON the front door down
into the queer three-sidcd room where
granny dealt out her sweets. l often
went in there while granny was pulling
candy on the great peg inserted in the
wall near the window. Granny was a
handsome old lady, and always neat
and nice with her old-fashioned gold
beads and her white frilled cap with
bright ribbons. The newly made
candy, Enthusiastically braided, lay in
long, tempting rows. But one day
Granny tale of woe unfolded, as she
gave me my nickel's worth, with lugu-
brious signs.
She had lost a ten-dollar bill, and
whether she had pulled it into the candy
into fragments, or it was there huddled
away intact-how could she tell? She
had had it only minute before, and
both her sight and memory were so
short that she couldn' say. She had
swept and searched, apd looked over
the candy, and finally given it up.
"Well, if anybody finds it they'll
keep it, l S pose" she said, as she rolled
my portion in a paper.
L assured her that if 1 found it it
should be returned intact-or in pieces.
And declare, l ate that candy so care
fully that it took me week One day
some friend went to sec Granny, and
having sharp eyes, detected something
peeping out of Granny's slipper.
Rather queer savings bank, that
of yours" she made remark. sit
looks like $1O-bill on the side of your
shoe. -
dear me! Them old slippersr' said
Granny, apologetically. Il haven't
wore 'em since-why, bless me! did
put 'em on that morning my foot hurt
me so!' And off came the slipper
Sure enough, for some reason she had
put in an old envelope, to soften the
sole or hide rent, and in the envelope
was the $40 bill, which had been in
closed therein for safe keeping and for
gotten. 1t was a shabby bill enough
when rescued, but still good for all
practical purposes. When l heard of
it l was provoked that in my zeal had
lost all the pleasure of eating my candy,
for fear / should swallow some frag-
ments of Granny's $1O-bill. What
fools children be, and what fools they
continue to be sometimes when they get
on in years. Cor. San Francisco Chr0n-
5cJp