KEEPING ACCOUNTS.
Mother's way in one particular is different from that of some other
people. Veva Fay and Lois Partridge never have any money of their own.
They always ask their parents for what they want. If Lois' papa is in a
happy frame of mind, he will give her a five-dollar gold piece, and say:
"There, go along, little girl, and buy as many bonbons as you please.
When that's gone, you know where to come for more."
If he happens to be tired, or if something in the city has gone wrong
that day, he will very likely meet her modest request with a "Don't
bother me, child! I won't encourage your growing up in foolish
extravagance."
Veva's father and mother make such a pet of her that they cannot bear to
deny her anything, and she will often order pretty things when she goes
to town, and is out walking with her cousins, just because they are
pretty, and not because she has any real use for them. If there were any
beggars here, Veva would empty that little silken purse of hers every
time she saw them, but the club has forbidden her to spoil Dot and
Dimpsie in that way. And she is too much of a lady to outshine the rest
of us.
Mother and father both believe in keeping an exact account of expenses.
Money is a great trust, and we must use it with care. Economy, which
some people suppose to be another name for saving, is a beautiful
picture word which signifies to guide the house. Mother thinks economy
cannot be learned in a day. So when I was little she began by giving me
ten cents every Saturday morning. At the same time she put in my hand a
little book and a pencil.
"See, daughter," she said, "thee is to set thy ten cents down on one
page, and that will show how much thee has to spend. On the other thee
is to put down the penny given in church, the penny for taffy, for
fines."
For fines? What could she mean?
Well, perhaps you will laugh; but my mother's way is never to let a
child in her care use slang, or slam doors, or leave things lying about
in wrong places, or speak unkindly of the absent. Half a cent had to be
paid every time I did any of these things, and I kept my own account of
them, and punished myself. I always knew when I had violated one of
mother's golden rules by her grieved look, or father's surprised one, or
by a little prick from my conscience.
"And what was done with the fines?" asked Jeanie, when I told her of
this plan.
"Oh, they went into our hospital fund, and twice a year--at midsummer
and Christmas--they were sent away to help some good Sisters who spent
their lives in looking after poor little cripples, or blind children, or
who went about in tenements to care for the old and sick."
At every week's end I had to bring my book to mother, add up what I had
spent, and subtract the amount from my original sum. If both were the
same, it was all right. If I had spent less than I received last
Saturday, then there was a balance in my favor, and something was there
all ready to add to my new ten cents. But if I had gone into debt, or
fallen short, or borrowed from anybody, mother was much displeased.
As I grew older my allowance was increased, until now I buy my gowns and
hats, give presents out of my own money, and have a little sum in the
savings-bank.
My housekeeping account while mother was absent was quite separate from
any other of my own. Mother handed me the housekeeping books and the
housekeeping money, with the keys, and left me responsible.
"Thee knows, Milly love," she said, "that I never have bills. I pay
everybody each week. Thee must do the same. And always put down the
day's expenses at the end of the day. Then nothing will be forgotten."
At the close of the year mother knows where every penny of hers has
gone. Even to the value of a postage-stamp or a postal-card.
As the Clover Leaf Club girls were not all so fortunate as I in having
an allowance, they took less interest in learning how to shop.
There are two ways of shopping. One is to set out without a very
definite idea of what you wish to buy, and to buy what you do not want,
if the shopman persuades you to do so, or it pleases your fancy.
The other is to make a list of articles before you leave home,
something like this: Nine yards of merino for gown; three yards of
silesia; two spools of cotton, Nos. 30 and 50; one spool of twist; one
dozen crochet buttons; a dozen fine napkins and a lunch cloth; five
yards of blue ribbon one inch wide; a paper of pins; a bottle of
perfumery; five-eighths of a yard of ruching for the neck.
Provided with such a memorandum, the person who has her shopping to do
will save time by dividing her articles into classes. The linen goods
will probably be near together in the shop, and she will buy them first;
then going to the counters where dress goods are kept, she will choose
her gown and whatever belongs to it; the thread, pins, twist and other
little articles will come next; and last, her ruching and ribbon.
She will have accomplished without any trouble, fuss, or loss of temper
what would have wearied an unsystematic girl who has never learned how
to shop.
Then, before she set out, she would have known very nearly how much she
could afford to spend--that is, she would have known if _my_ mother's
way had been her mother's--and on no account would she have spent more
than she had allowed herself in thinking it over at home.
When the club undertook charge of all Dot's and Dimpsie's expenses, it
was rather a puzzle to some of us to know how we were to pay our share.
I set apart something from my allowance. Lois watched for her papa's
pleasant moods. Veva danced up to her father, put her arms around his
neck, and lifted her mouth for a kiss, coaxed him for some money to give
away, which she always received directly. Others of the girls were at a
loss what to do.
Jeanie and Linda had a happy thought, which they carried out. They said:
"We have learned how to make bread and biscuits and cake and candy, and
we all know how often our friends cannot persuade cooks to stay in their
houses. We will make bread or cake on Saturday mornings for anybody who
is good enough to pay for it."
They could not see why it was not just as sensible a thing to make and
sell good bread as to paint scarfs or embroider tidies, and mother,
after she heard of their proposal, quite agreed with them.
Through our efforts, combined as they were, we sent our little girls to
Kindergarten, kept warm shoes and stockings on their feet, and brought
them up respectably, though Jack Roper was as odd and indolent as ever,
and never showed by so much as a look that he imagined anybody took an
interest in his children.