The Press., 1918-03-14
According to
 Budget
By Jane o,bOrn

a year and was supremeiy happy in hls snug little apartment with his blue-eyed little wife, seated him. self in his favorite easy chair with volume of his favorite author and ms favorite pipe, preparatory to enjoying for the evening all the happiness Of bachelor life rolled into one with the eontentment of married life, there was blue-eyed Pegg on the other side of the table with flat, oblong book that had a new look to it. Peggy opened II wllh care and pressed the covers back as one does with a book that has never been opened before.
 It was the budget book.
 Angelica has been here today Peggy announced, land she brought this-it's such a wonderful idea MOr- ton, did you ever hear of a budget! never had, but Angelica explained what it means and here is the Dook' She has made special study of mousse keeping, you know"
 'sBut what does Angelica know about making men happy in their homes?' uueried Morton, who had not an altogether pleasant mental image ol Peggy's tall, angular, many-degreed | cousin, who seemed to be so fond of uniting ideas into Peggy's head as Peggy was of sponging them up. ssWhat does she know about real home making2"
 "oh, she knows 8 great deal" ln- sisted Peggy. "And she says that the reason why so many people aren't hap py is because the wives aren't Dusl- ness-Iike and don't apply the same methods to housekeeping that men ao to their businesses. Angelica would make some man wonderfully happy"
 "Did she tell you that, tool" asked Morton, putting on his pipe viciously.
 "Yes, only, of course, she is so busy telling other women how to make thelr homes happy that she doesn't nave time. We'll, she brought me this bud get book and am to put down in these little columns just what spend each day-see, here's place for bread and one for butter and another TOT meat and fish, and all the things we eat, and here's one for ice and one for help and carfare and light and things like that-Angelica says you call those last ones operating expenses. It Is the first of the month, so I started right in. See. I bought some face powder at the drug store and put that down under medicine, and the two dollars for the laundress-that goes under help. Every time you give me anything that goes in here under receipts. And every week I am to balance 1t both ways so can tell at a glance just how much am spending for every different sort of thinw-and in the front of the book there is a table telling how much we ought to spend for things and If I'm spending too much for any one thing then we'll know 1t and can stop max lnR that mistake. Angelica says she
 win help me balance and figure out the II percentaRes-I never could do per-
 centaseS."
 "You don't mean that Angelica Is
 going to keep tabs on our household expenses?" gasped Morton.
 "Oh, you mustn't mind that. She helps lots of young married girls-she says she is helping them to make their husbands happy and eOntented. That is her life work. She started doing It only for the poor people in the settle ment, but she has discovered that peo- \ ple comfortably off need help just as much. And so I started right away, but can't finish till you tell me your part of 1t. Here's a place for mans
 lunch and another for 'carfares,' that
 you must tell me, and every day you
 must tell me how much you have spent
 for magazines or papers-that goes
 under Tmprovements,' and if you give
 something to a beggar you must tell me
 90 can put 1t down under Church and
 Charity
 ''Every night 1 will ask you so yoI
 won't forget anything. Angelica hal
 been helping one young couple ant
 they haven't been a cent out Of th'
 way since they began. The husband
 remembers every tinty winty thing h.
 spends and he Is so happy just on ac
 count of it."
 Morton snorted inwardly and ha'
 some rather sinister thoughts regard
 ing Angelica and her missionary enter
 prise. "Is there a definite percentag for the amount Of tobacco a husban'
 can useT"
 "Yes, indeed-but the book says tha
 one of the things the young peopl ought to strive to do is to divert tha money-those are the words the boo uses-into other more worth-whl channels, such as lecture courses, th
 purchase of an encyclopedia or bear i tfful work of art. Don't you think AT , geIica is doing a wonderful wOrk?" Yes, quite wonderful, not to say rt
 markable, phenomenal and epocl [ making" said Morton, and Peggy wa
 satisfied.
 , Every night for month thereafte 9 Morton was obliged to confess just ho' I much he spent on luncheon, sho
 shines, beggars and tobacco, and eve , had to admit that he lost dollar on f bet one day and gained two dollars tl , next, though Peggy hadn't any ids ' where tO enter these items and itnall , decided on putting the dollar down ul . der mortgage interest" because sh \ hadn't anything else for that column , and calling the other simply leash n 3 ceiYed."
 , Angelica had promised to help Pet n gy with the percentages and correC I their budget at the end of the follow
 ing month, and Morton was casttn
 about in his mind for way of defea
 ing her in her purpose. One night earl
 in the second month of their budgt
 accounts he told his wife he had mt
 an interesting old school friend of hi : who had a delightful mission in lift 1. He was trying to help the men h . knew to make their wives happy an he had worked out a system which a : vet he had not had published. It wa ! said Morton, the theory of this ma
 that the most worthwhile thing in lii
 was not money. Money was inciden
 al. Ones happiness did not depen
 on the amount of money one had 8