The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-09
The Woman
He Married
DICK BRINGS HOME GOOD NEWS
CHAPTER TO-
BY JANE PHELPS

CHAPTER 10.
trHurrah, everybody" Dick came in
SO boisterously that both mother and
looked up in surprise
What is it? What has happened"
we chorused.
Got a raise! And the kids got
that!' He threw a bank book on the
bed with an entry of 500 in the name
of Richard Williams, Junior.
t'How much of a raise ?' I asked.
Fifty dollars. $500 a month. l
feel like millionaire. I stopped and
paid the druggist. and will send the
! doctor his check tomorrow. Geei but
it's good to be able to pay them."
~You seem~to think more of paying
| them than of our being able to have
things little. better. more like other
ipeopler' I said peevishly, forgetting
mother was in the room and listening.
mani" her voice startled me. You
mustn't talk like that, dear. Dick is
right. His first thought should have
been his honest obligations to others,
and after that your own comfort"
1 said no more / did not care to
lprovoke further discussion along those
| lines. But I noticed the light died out
! of Dicks eyes, and he left the room
very quietly.
For some time mother didn't speak,
and I lay resting and planning what
1 should do with that extra $50 a
month. In the first place, I would get
myself some stylish, pretty clothes.
Then we must move-I wanted an
apartment like Clara Watson's, an
elevator apartment SO that I wouldn't
be ashamed to ask people to call.
Nan, child, I must talk to you,
mother interrupted my thoughts.
sDick is a very bright, a very clever
young man. He is bound to make
good-if you do not hinder him." I;
Hinder him-what do you mean q
"By urging him to make more
money all the time. and by being care
less about debt and so forth. don't
quite understand you, Nan. You never
saw us run in debt at home. We had
what we could pay for, no more.
| Everybody I know runs bills"
| eff they run bills beyond what their
income warrants. they are dishonest
It is convenience sometimes TO nave
charge accounts, but 1T is also q
temptation. It is SO easy to say
charge it. and often impossible to pay
cash. And many times. dear. the very
thing We charge is something we can
very we'll do without. I don't want &c
meddle-the officious mother.in-iaw
never appealed to me. But this tins
| it is YOUR mother who Is finding faui'
with her own daughter"
Mother said this whimsically, smlllne
at me. But I was offended just ting
same. and answered her sharply;
eve been married over a year!
think I can run my own affairs pretty
well: Dick never has found fault WIFE
me-"
sDick isn't the fault-finding kind
dear. But he has looked terribly
WORRIED at times while you have been
| ill. He has had very little appetite
and seemed absent minded. I saw he
was trying to keep it from me as well
as you, SO I said nothing But his ok
preston when he told of his raise said
as plainly as words that it was the ex
pense of your illness he had beer
worrying about-the necessity of run
ming in debt. wish you had saved
| just little each rnenth-just couple
of hundred dollars in all would have
tided you over nicely. But 1t is al
right now and it may be a lesson to
you. Try always to have just a httlt
in case of sickness or some emergency
Mother left to get dinner when she
| finished her talk. and was glad to be
spared the necessity of answering.
| felt peeved, cross that she should have
taken me so to task. / was a married
woman now, a mother. could
| manage my own affairs.
I loved my mother devoted1y, but
the knowledge that had done wrong
that I deserved all she had said and
more. made it hard to bear--especially
as 1 had no idea of doing as she sug-
geSted.
| Save money-no indeed Net while
I needed so many things. Afterwards
perhaps. When we had all the things
I planned, why then we would save.
| Mother LETT US a week later. She
said no more about our expenditures
until just as she left. Then she said:
| Remember, dear. what 1 told yor
about your marketing. 1t win do you
| good to get out each day. Put baby
in his go-cart, and take him along
And Nan. don't run into debt! 1t will
| bring unhappiness to you If you do
(Tomorrow-Seme new friends)