Year: 1873

undertaking of the first years OF her
married life, and to do it she would
bend every available energy. She
planned that if possible she would get
hold of that odd fifty cents every day
or, If she could not do that, she would
do the best she could. ...


Generous, frank, loyal, loving, Albert
was an easy prey to the wiles of wife
as loyal and as loving as himself. He
gave her money when she asked for it
and she asked him for it when she
thought he had any to give.


And here let me say that Alice knew
her husband would not run in debt.
That was an evil they both armed them
selves against in the outset. When AL
bert's purse was empty he bought moth
ing, and when it was full he was apt to
buy more than he needed. Alice knew
all this, and governed herself accord
inglS


:" think" said Alice, one evening
"that I must fix over my old brown
cashmere for the winter. should like
a new one, but l don't suppose you can
afford it."


Albert looked grieved. The idea that
he could not afford his wife new dress


But for such n one as she wanted il
would cost twenty five or thirty dollars.


" If you want it, get itl' said Albert,
emphatically. &C. will let you have
twenty dollars from this months pay,
and the balance you shall have next
month.


Alice got the thirty dollars, but did
not get the dress. By the outlay of
five dollars for new trimmings she con-
trived to fix over the brown cashmere,
so that it looked every bit as good as a
new one.


And SO Alice worked. Sometimes
she asked her husband for ten cents,
sometimes for a dollar, and sometimes
for more and, at the end of year,
upon careful reckoning up, she found
that she had managed to get hold of
rather more than fifty cents day but
she had done it by denying herself of
many things, some Of which were need
full.


The result of the first years effort in
spired Alice with new life and vigor.
She had saved up $3.50, and had in
NCoUCu ~ LII
the influence of dear friend who was
in banking establishment, and to
whom she had confded her secret, she
was enabled to get the bonds at their
face value.


1t was only little at time-some-
times very little--but even q penny
dropped into the strong-box was 80
much gained. Only httle-but those
Titles, multiplied by other Titles, grew
amazingly. The husbandman who
would sit himself down by a hill of
put forth, would be disheartened, but
he knows if he plants the tiny seed and
cultivates it as he ought, that the har-
vest of golden grain will come at length.


Albert and Alice were married in the
spring Of 1865. 1t was on an evening
of August, 1870, that Albert came home
out of sorts. He had been notified that
he must leave the cottage. They must
give up the pleasant home, and lose
the little garden they had cultivated
with so much fondness and care.


The owner wishes to SELL" he ex-
claimed "and he has an offer. He
asks two thousand dollars, and must
have five hundred down."


Alice's eyes glistened with radiant
delight. She had been thinking for
sometime that she must let her husband
into the secret. 1t had begun to wear
upon her. And now the time had come
as though by yprovidential interposition.
She did not make o scene. She
would not add to the denouen1ent by
and by play. She simply got up and
went to her cabinet, and when she came
back she brought little book in her
hand.


"Albert p said she, "let you and
buy the cottage"


"Albert looked at her in amazement;
and directly it flashed upon him that
there was toe much solemnity in her
look and tone for badinage. Some
thing that he had noticed during the
past months came back to him, and he
trembled with the weight of suspense
that fell upon him.


Alice saw and understood. At first
the great food almost overcame her,
and she was forced to rest and wipe her
eyes before she could proceed. And
then she showed her book-that had
more than eight hundred dollars in the
bank. The ice was broken; she told
her story in glowing words. She told
how she had saved up little by little,
and how she had at length found herself
able to purchase fifty dollar bond.
And then she told how her uncle in the
banking house had taken charge of the
investment and how, under his man.
agement, the interest had accrued in
amazing volume.


But the grand result was not the chief
thing. The chief thing was the begin
ning-was the first little which had been
religiously saved until the second little
could be added to it.


And now, as O result of the wife's
careful and tireless working, Albert
found something upon which his ambi-
tion could take fair start. He never
could, himself, from so small a com.
mencement, have reared the pile but
with the structure started, and its pro.
portions all blocked out, lie could heir
ON the work. He could not see how il
was done-and not only that, but the
demonstration was before him that the
thing could be done.


One year had elapsed since Albert
Moore received the lesson from his
wife, and joining hands with her, and
bending his energies in the same direc
ton, he has accomplished during the
twelve months what would have seemed
to him marvel in the earlier times
He has laid by more than fifty cents 6
day; and the cigars, and beer, and the
other condiments of life which he haC
surrendered to the work are not missed
rather, he holds that they are so many
enemies conquered. And Albert Cal