St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1908-09-19
The Little Woman's Check Book
By Campbell acCulIoch
(Copyrght.)

Phil, DEAR" said the Little Won.
an, the butcher has just sent in his
Dlh' and it's perfectly horrid
amount: $16.72."
ihdeed! l said, rather aimlessly,
ana laid down the magazine I had
oeen reading. The Little Woman sat
at a desk near the window; she had
the END OF the penholder between her
.ee1h; there was a cruel smudge of
INK upon her forefnger, and her gold
en- mead was just little bit tousled.
She was frowning heavily, and she
iooked at me perplexedly.
YES. l don't know how we could
possibly have eaten all that meat:
No you' Ph1l? she queried, anxiously.
The Little Woman deludes herself
IN the belief that she is a housekeep-
er' and she worries each month over
heF accounts" in a perfectly alarming
manner. On the desk lay the new
check book which had given her, and
l began to see that behind the per-
my OF the butcher lay something else.
Inc Little Woman is proud. very
proud; and when I had presented her
WIN the check book some days pre-
Vlously, she had become so important
LnaC L began to see a vision of troll
OIous days for the clerks in the bank.
1 mad dim suspicion that perhaps
TINS new check book lay at the bottom
OF the present trouble, and that the
Dutcher was merely a bait, suuirming
uheaslly upon the hook Of difficulty.
L suggested that she send a check for
the amount, to which she agreed
after some hesitation.
l drew a little nearer. for 7 knew
mat this was the first check, and it
was sure to be interesting. I even
sat down on the arm of her chair
and held my breath. She drew the
cneck book to her firmly; she opened
IT'S brown cover with decision; she
smoothed 1T down, and dipped her
pen in the ink with an air of finalitv.
After a trying half hour l succeeded
IN initiating her into the intricacies of
writing check.
Nothing must do but that it must
Dc mailed at once, and l took my hat
and went on to the mail box. When
L returned she was still sitting at
tne desk. AS entered she said:
viii the people in the bank give
out the money whenever I write
check?"
AS long as you have a balance
there"
What is a balance?"
explained that to her. but I could
not remove the impression that the
people at the bank were a most &C.
set. Then another idea
appealed to her.
You know Nellie was once robbed |
by two men who came into her house.
They found all her housekeeping
money, and took it away. They |
couldn't do that to me, could they.
PhiI? Yots see never intend to have
any money at I'LL I'll write a check
TOR every thing. LF7:=lsFE one can al
can they?" =
agreed that this was an incontro.
Vertfble fact and again assured nv.
SELF that the people at the bank were
gong 70 be busy; very busy, indeed.
her head was filled with a continu-
ance of the idea, for she said:
Father told me that you had t. he
identified at the bank before they
would give you money"
Father is right" l assured her
Fhat' however, need not concern you.
Let the people to whom you give the
checks worry"
But If went and tried to get
money for myself, would they give it
% me?"
They would be delighted"
Would they believe me if / said I
vas Jessica Harmon?"
"Your signature would identify
Tou"
"oh!" she replied, and then was !
ilent. {
Two days after that I had occa- {
ion to pass the kitchen, and hearing
ounds of argument / basely listened {
/ was the Little Woman. She was s
aging: i
Now, Norah, run down to the drug G
lists and get me ten cents worth of +
enzoin. Here's the money" t
Where, mum?" inquired the skep- s
cal Norah, whom 1 have always p
Inspected of residence quite near to f,
Lissouri. f
Here, silly" responded the Little O
Toman. Il have written check"
Then / went away, and began to rn- D
erstand that my suspicion that the 81
ank people we're going to be busy W
as being justified In the next week r,
overheard COMPENSATION relating to W
lecks for various amounts. Once 1t 81
as for 63 cents for vinegar. Again VI
was Is cents for tomatoes. Once m
rain it was II cents for a bag of ri
1t. AS walked upon the streets of L
IT town I began to notice respectful tc
ms upon the faces of the various pi
adespeople. / smiled back at them h,