Morris tribune., 1886-12-29
HOW A MISER WAS CURED.

Jonas Pray was born stingy; he hid
his sweetmeats from his slittle brothers
when he was a child, and smoked his
cigar alone when he was young man.
By the time he was forty he was a
very rich man, though he lived as
plainly as ever, and somehow about
that age the first tender feelings he
had ever known crept into his heart.
He fell in love with q buxom, good
tempered young woman named Sara
Woolwich, and offered himself to her.
He was not an Unlocking man, and
Ehen he chose could make himself
agreeable. Sara liked him and ac-
cepted him.
Jonas meant to be liberal to her at
hrst, but after brief honeymoon, his
old habits resumed their sway, and
at last, the second winter of their mar
ried life coming on, Sara found that
all her remarks about her shabby
summer hat had no effect whatever,
and that she might wait long time
without having such a thing as q COM
Portable cloak suggested to her. She
had been poor girl and had no
trousseau to speak of, and she found
it necessary to put her pride in her
pocket and ask for what she needed.
1t was hard enough for wife to do
that, but to be refused was something
she had not calculated on.
She knew that her husband had q
large bank account-that there was no
reason why she should not be dressed
as we'll as any lady in the land. But
when she had said playfully, "Jonas,
shall l buy myself some winter things
to-day? need shawl dreadfully, "he
had answered, II thought you were
too sensible woman to run after the
fashions, Sara; Pm sure you have
very decent things that you might
wear g. long time yet"
THAT shows how much men know"
Sara answered, determined to be
pleasant and not show that she was
hurt. You would not like your wife
to look shabby, Jonas?"
"Well, no." said Jonas, "no; but
really, Sara, money is so scarce just
now. Don't you think you might
make what you have do you a little
| longer?
GLOW much longer?" she asked,
quietly.
ooh, 7 don't know" said Jones, II
| had an aunt who left me something
when she died, who wore the same
shawl and bonnet sixteen years, and
boasted of it, too."
His wife looked at him and said
nothing.
Economy is a great thing, Sara"
said Jonas, uneasily. at would be
dreadful to die in the poor house, you
know; and you don't care for other
peoples admiration, do you, Sara,
when you know your Jonas likes you
Just as we'll in your well-saved clothes?
We won't call them shabby, Sara,
only well-saved."
"Call them what you please, Jonas;
they merit both epithets."
She sat quietly, with her hands
folded on the table before her, for a
while. Her temper was raising fast,
but she had sense enough to crush it
down.
A miser is the victim of a. vice that
master him just as drunkard is.
Jonas was ashamed of himself ever as
he spoke, and she knew it. AS she
looked at him little while grief came
instead of anger. There was so much
that was good about Jonas. 1t was
terrible to see this canker creeping
over it all; to see the pinched lines
about his mouth, the strange, anxious
look in his eyes. Sara thought Of
stories she had read about misers;
how they starved themselves while
they counted their gold; how some of
them died in the dark to save candles:
and how, through long illness one of
them refused to have a pillow bought
for him, or even a little saucepan in
which to heat his porridge. Would
Jonas grow to be as bad as these?
How could she tell? Once or twice of
late he had found fault with the
amount used, and moared over his
butchers bill. But men generally did
something of shat sort, she had heard,
and men knew nothing about dress.
She arose, softly, and went out of the
room, and brought back her shawl and
bonnet and laid them before him on
the table.
"Jonas, DEAR" she said, II don't
want to be unreasonable, but
look at these; see how shabby they
are. They were nice when we
were married, but they were cheap,
very cheap, and cheap things fade so.
have made everything had do for
two years. did not like to ask for
clothes. You know he gave me two
pairs of gloves in our honeymoon; l
have them STILL"
"What good, careful GIRL" said
Jonas caressing her dark hair, as she
came and sat on q low stool beside
him.
eyes, / have been careful, it is my
nature to be careful, "said Sara. "Few
rich mems wives would have done so
much. Now look at these things, my
dear"
Jonas looked. There came time |
afterward when it seemed to him
that the faded tint of the shawl,
its dingy palm leaves of yellow
brown, and the wilted flowers and
shabby ribbons of the bonnet that |
had scared into his brain. He looked |
at them long and lingeringly. Heknew
that his wife was reasonable, and |
that the things were, and long had
been unfit for her to wear. But his
money tugged at his heart-strings.
Suppose you wear them just one
winter more-iust one"
"The shawl is very thin," she said,
II shall catch cold again, as did last
winter"
"Poor girl" he said softly, and |
looked towards the desk where his
check-book lay. But the grip of the
fiend that rules miser's soul nipped
him sorely as he did SO.
"They wear sacques a good deal,
Sara, don't they?"he said.
"Oh, they are very fashionable" re-
Piled Sara.