The Washington times., 1911-05-01

We bought almost THOUSAND dol
lars worth of furniture on the INSTALL
ment plan. and even then we olon
seem TO get more than the bare neces-
stiles.
/ hadn't any idea that nousefurnish-
ings cost so much. But If the bill had
come TO five times that l wouldn't nave
cared. The installments dldnt amount
Morse promoted and myself hlling his
position at $3.50. With Ruth at my side
] bought like king.
The following Saturday We were mar
ried. My vacation wasn't due Tor an
other month, so we decided not to wait
The old folks came down from the farm
and we just called in clergyman and
were married in the front parlor OF the
and very solemn. Ruth wore a white
dress and looked very beautiful, and
didn't seem afraid.
AS for me, my knees trembled and
was chalk white. I think II was the
old people and the room. for when 1t
was over and We came out into the
sunshine again / felt all right except
a bit light-headed. | remember that the
street and houses and the cars seemed
like very small matters.
When, with Ruth on my arm, !
walked up the steps of the house and
unlocked the front door, I entered upon
a new life 1t was my first taste of home
since my mother died, and added TO
that was this new love which was inner
than anything l had ever dreamed
about. 1t seemed hard to have to leave
every morning at half-past 6 and not
get back until after at night. but 10
offset this we used TO get UP as early as
o'clock during the long summer Gays;
Many the time even in June Ruth ana
I ate our breakfast by lampnght. II
gave us an extra hour, and she was
bred in the country where getting up
In the morning is no great hardship.
We couldn't afford servant ana %
cook and l certainly did justice to her
dishes after ten years of restaurants
and boarding houses. On rainy Gays
when we couldn't get out she USED 10
watch her 1t seemed a lot more like
her cooking when l saw her pat out
the dough and put 1t in the oven in
stead of coming home and finding II
sit by the kitchen stove until / had
Just time TO catch the train by sprint
ing.
either take a long walk through the
big park reservation which was near
the house or we'd fuss over the garden.
We had twenty-five inches of radishes,
thirty-eight inches of lettuce, four To-
mato plants, two hills of corn. three
hills of beans, and about four yards
of early peas. In addition to this Ruth
had squeezed a geranium into one COZ =
ner and fern into another, and plant
ed sweet alyssum around the whole
business. Every one out here planned
TO raise his own vegetables. 1t was
supposed to cut down expenses, but |
noticed the market man always did
q good business.
had met two or three of the men
at the country club. and they intro,
duced me to the others. We were all
earning about the same salaries and
living in about the same type Of house.
Still there were differences and you
toll nv tho UIVpS than the
husbands those whose salaries went
over 5000 Two or three of the mon
were in banks, one was in a leather
firm, one was an agent for an insur-
telegraph company, another was with
the Standard Oil. and two or three 9TH
ers were with firms like mine. Most
of them had been settled out here three
or four years and had children. In
general way they looked comfortable
and happy enough. but you heard a
good deal Of talk among them about the
high cost of living and you couldn' I
the best had the fewest children. One
or two of them owned horses, but even
they felt obliged to explain that they
saved the cost of them in carfares.
They all called and left their cards,
but that first year we didn't see much
OF them. There wasn't room in my life
for any one but Ruth at that time. /
didn't see even the old office gang ex-
cept during. business hours and at
lunch.
The rent scaled my salary down to
S,ON at one sweep. Then we had 10
save out at least S. week to pay on the
furniture. This left $3.50, or S15.75 a
week to cover running expenses. We
paid cash for everything, and, though
we never had much left over at the
end of the week and never anything at
the end of the month, we had about
everything we wanted. For one thing
our tastes were not eXtravagant and we
did no entertaining. Our grocery and
meat bill amounted to from s. to 81 a
week. or course. l had my lunchet in
town, but got out of those for 20 cents.
My daily carfare was 20 cents more,
which brought my total weekly ex-
penses up to about 50. This left a com
Portable margin of from S. to 81 for
Hight, coal, clothes and amusements. In
the summer the first three items didn't
amount to much, so some weeks we put
most of this into the furniture. But
the city was new to Ruth. especially
at night, so we were in town q good
deal She used to meet me at the office
and we'd walk about the city and then
take dinner at some little French res
taurant and hen maybe go to a concert
or the theater. She made everything
used to perch on the edge of her seat
SO breathless, so responsive that l often
saw the old-tmers watch her instead
of the show. often. did myself. And
whole company acted to her alone.
These days were perfect The only
incident TO mar them was the death
of Ruths parents. They died sud-
denly and left an estate of $500 or 500.
Ruth insisted upon putting that into the
furniture. But in our own lives every
day was as fair as the first. My salary
came as regularly as an annuity and
there was every prospect for advance
nent. The garden did well and Ruth
became acquainted with most of the
women in a social way. She Joined
a sewing circle which met twice a
month chiefly, / guess, for the purpose
Of finding out about one anothers hus-
bands At any rate, she told me more
about them than l would have learned
In ten years.
Still during the fall and winter we
kept pretty much by ourselves, not
deliberately, but because neither of US
cared particularly about whist parties
and such things, but preferred to spend
together what time we had. And then
guess Ruth was little shy about her
clothes. She dressed mighty well to my
eye, but she made most of her things
herself and didn't care much about
style. She didn't notice the difference
at home. but when she was out among
others they made her feel II. However
spring came round again ana we for
got all about those details. We didn't
go in town so much that summer and
used to spend more time on our piazza
saw more Of the men in this way and
found them a pleasant, companionable
lot. They asked me to join the Neigh.
borhood Club and l did, more to meet
n fo1