Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-12-14

IL Idll1hS tiiC OlnCl SIMPLY Nooh Y
ceived.'
Angelica had promised to help Peg
gy with the percentages and correct
their budget at the end of the follow
ing month, and Morton was casting
about in his mind for a way of defeat
ing her in her purpose. One night early
in the second month of their budget
accounts he told his wife he had met
an interesting old school friend of his
who had q delightful mission in life.
He was trying to help the men he
knew to make their wives happy and
he had worked out q system which as
yet he had not had published. 1t was,
said Morton, the theory of this man
that the most worthwhile thing in life
was not money. Money was incident
al. Ones happiness did not depend
on the amount of money had so
why take pains to conserve 1t? The
things that counted were the words
one spoke, the smiles and tears and
signs and laughter. 1t was as folk
use these real things of life that they
were either happy or unhappy. For
instance, lie q man laughs only when
his wife hits her thumb with a ham,
mer or when he see a cat with q tin
can ON the end of its tail, he is pretty
sure to make himself and his asso-
ciates unhappy.
The m who spends two hours
every morning gossiping with a neigh
Dor about another neighbours divorce
case is wasting her time and cheating
her husband because a woman'S words
belong as much to her husband as a
mans savings belong to his wife.
Peggy listened i~ntently to the ex-
PLANTATION, and seemed enthralled. SO
far, was she from suspecting Morton's
scheme that she even suggested that
Angelica would like to meet the
stranger, and went off into a very
pleasant brown study as she thought
that possibly a match might be made
between these two workers for hui
manity's happiness-and so there
might, had the second p~hilanthropist
been a person of flesh and blood and
not a creature of Morton's imagina-
ton. Morton gave his wife some type
written sheets containing items and a
system of horizontal and perpendicu-
lar lines not unlike Angelica's budget
book and he asked her to fill in the
items from day to day. He would not
let her forget, he said, but would go
wei the sheets every evening after
he had finished telling her just how
much he had spent.
One of the items of Morton's scheme
was labeled 'tears' and under this
pool Peggy felt in duty bound-for
Morton had accounted for his lunch
money to a penny-to explain the
cause for every tear she shed. The
tears she spent over the frost-bitten
geranium plant were in a measure ex-
cusable, for death even of a plant Is
q suitable cause of sorrow, but when
she wept over the fact that she was
not invited to a certain luncheon party
she was in the wrong because the sor-
row in that case was prompted by jeal-
ousy or personal pique.
Peggy had a hard time with the
item marked daughter" for it was
Il CSS3 . 1dld1O ~ TUG u 4bASO
frequently and everytime she stopped
to think that she was laughing and
that she must remember to put it
down in the list she was sobered so
she stopped laughing. And 1t was
hard sometimes to have to put down
on that sheet for Morton's eyes that
she had said ''darn it" because the po-
tatoes boiled dry; still there was an
item for profanity and Morton had
decided that "darn it" was as near to
profanity as Peggy ever came.
One night-it was the night before
Angelica's expected visit and Morton
had been unusually severe with Peggy
over the sheets, as indeed Peggy had
been with Morton because he couldn't
remember how much he tipped that
day at luncheon-Peggy crumpled
down over the sheets in tears. "We're
not half SO happy as we used to be-
before we began to budget every
thing" she walled. 81 wish Angelic
had never left the settlement and l
wish your sour-hearted old friend-l
know he is sour OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES in
The bottom of the ocean. And l just
hate to. keep accounts, 1 do, and /
don't want you to tell me how much
you spend"
Morton took a warm little hand from
under the tear stained face and then
raised the face and kissed away the
/ tears.
"Shake, Peggy he said. "We don't
need any ones prescription for happi-
ness, do we? And we are through
with budgets for keeps"
"Forever," echoed Peggy, and she
meant it.