Evening star., 1924-06-22

| the time till I thought of something
| better.
The trouble began Monday, when I
| had to send the next SO cents in a
| little cardboard holder that had come
| with the books. ! opened the budget
| box. and there in the luxury square
| were two new half dollars. our weeks
| luxury. It would be very simple and
perfectly honest for me TO slip ono of
| them into the holder and send IT, but,
OF course, later In the week, Will
would be likely to want some luxury
| and would see that half OF the money
was gone.
| squares, and the idea occurred to me
| that I might borrow from one OF
them, refuse all Iuxuries Of any form.
| and then-Will, of course. wouldn't
| spend the whole dollar himself, week
after week-return the loan as soon
| as 1 had a good chance. This WAS a
| very simple way, and at once I took
| a half dollar out OF the doctor and
| dentist square and sent it to the epics
| firm.
Everything would have worked out
| perfectly all right If it hadn't been
| for the one thing that causes me
practically all my troubles: that is,
my conscience. / do wish my con-
| science were either strong enough to
| keep me from doing questionable
| things in the first place or else weak
| enough to let me just forget all about
| them once I've done them.
That half dollar hadn't been in the
post office an hour before ! had
warnings that / was going to have
| an attack of conscience.
Dot Aldrich," said to myself, "I
do wish to heaven you weren't so
| good"
r FELT that / was being terribly
= mean to viii. made chocolate
! pie for dinner to sort OF make it UP
| to him, but the fact that had taken
| the SO cents out Of the doctor and
| dentist box preyed on my mind. ]
| felt that while ] was feeding Will
rich and indigestible food with one
| hand I was stealing his doctor money
with the other. l wished had made
| a simple cornstarch pudding and not
| trified with his health.
To make II worse, all that week
| VIII did not touch the luxury money.
The next Saturday night, when he
put in a dollar bill. he said:
Gee. Two dollars for luxury.
| Hurrah for our side"
was no better off than before;
couldn't take out so cents now with
out his missing il. This week L took
| the money out of wear-and-tear-on-
| house and furniture. That did not
seem quite 80 mean, but as luck would
have it, Will spilled salad on the rug
and ! had to have II cleaned. which
| took every penny out of that square.
| I couldn't borrow from it again
The next week I took the SO cents
out of dentist and doctor again
There was no other square could
Htt niaMt ! oadld
Ana to make i. All the weEs wlI1 @
time. Every nice thing he did for
me made me feel meaner and guiltier.
He never even touched the luxury
money. Finally. when there was 81
in the box, he said:
Lets buy you something with this.
Dottie. what1 you haveT'
Nothing" 1 said hoilowly. There
isn't thing / want"
"Oh, come Off, said Will coaxingly.
Try to think of something. / want
to buy you something nice. Gee. Dot,
I'm getting sweeter on you every
day"
And that was the man ] was de-
Iiberately stealing from! The man
whose doctor money 1 was embezzling
to pay for epics and sonnets!
The next week 1 managed to save
the 80 cents out of the housekeeping
money, but instead of the nice. thrifty
feeling 1 had always had before when
I saved on the housekeeping money,
/ just felt lower than ever.
I'd keep telling Will about how
thrifty T was in marketing, in order