Picking hops (4 days) . . . . $1.00
Sewing (Mrs. Shackell). . . . .60
Egg money (3-1/4 dozen) . . . .75
Winning puzzle. . . . . . . . 2.50
-----
$4.86
Disbursed:
Kitchen roller. . . . . . . . $ .10
Coffee mill . . . . . . . . . .50
Shoes for M. . . . . . . . . 1.25
Water colors for M. . . . . . .25
Suit for M. . . . . . . . . . 2.00
Gloves--me. . . . . . . . . . .50
-----
$4.75
Cash on hand: 11 cents.
The bookkeeper paused again. Ebenezer, frowning, reached for the book.
In his wife's fine faded writing were her accounts--after the eleven
cents was a funny little face with which she had been wont to illustrate
her letters. Ebenezer stared, grunted, turned to the last page of the
book. There, in bold figures, the other way of the leaf, was his own
accounting. He remembered now--he had kept his first books in the back
of the account book that she had used for the house.
Ebenezer glanced sharply at his bookkeeper. To his annoyance, the man
was smiling with perfect comprehension and sympathy. Ebenezer averted
his eyes, and the bookkeeper felt dimly that he had been guilty of an
indelicacy toward his employer, and hastened to cover it.
"Family life does cling to a man, sir," he said.
"Do you find it so?" said Ebenezer, dryly. "Read, please."
At noon Ebenezer walked home alone through the melting snow. And the
Thought that he did not think, but that spoke to him without his
knowing, said:--
"Winning a puzzle--Two Dollars and a half. She never told me she tried
to earn a little something that way."