ACCOUNTS.
Lucy had an allowance from her father of a small sum of money every
week, which she was allowed to expend for herself, in any way that her
father approved. Her father had several reasons for this, and, among
the others, he thought it would help Lucy to learn something about
accounts. For he said, when he told her that he was going to let her
have an allowance, that he must make her an account-book like Royal’s;
for Royal had had an allowance, and an account-book to keep an account
of it in, for a long time.
“But, father,” said Lucy, “why need I have an account-book? Why can’t
you give me the money every Saturday night, and let me keep it myself?”
“For several reasons,” said her father. “In the first place, I should
not always remember to pay you the money every Saturday night; and
then, in the middle of the next week, we should not be quite sure
whether it had been paid or not. And so, in a short time, we should get
into confusion. And then, besides, I am not willing to let you have the
money to keep yourself.”
“Why not, sir?” said Lucy.
“You would be very likely to lose it. You would leave it here and there
about the house, as you do your playthings. Then, besides, if you had
the charge and custody of your money, you would sometimes, perhaps,
expend it without my approbation.”
“But I should think that, if the money was ours,” said Royal, who was
standing by at this time, “we might expend it for any thing we chose.”
“True,” replied his father, “but the money isn’t yours. I don’t make
you an allowance of so much _money_ every week, but give you a credit,
to be used on certain conditions; and if you take it, you take it
subject to those conditions.”
“What conditions?” said Lucy.
“Why, that you use the credit only for such purposes as I approve. I
put down for you a certain sum for every week, and then, when you want
to buy any thing, you can have it, if I think it is proper for you, and
if it doesn’t come to more than your allowance amounts to. But in the
mean time I must keep all the money.”
Accordingly, Lucy’s father made her a small account-book, like Royal’s.
Her mother sewed it. It had a cover of marble paper. The leaves were
made of paper, ruled with blue lines, and her father ruled some lines
up and down the page of red ink. The first line was near the left-hand
edge of every page, and was intended to mark off a space to put down
the day of the month, when any thing was written in the book. Then
there was another, near the right-hand edge of every page, which was
for the figures expressing the amount of the money.
It was about the middle of July, when Lucy’s father made her
the account-book. But he said he would begin back as far as to
Lucy’s birthday, in reckoning the allowance. So he entered in the
account-book, first, an allowance for a month and a half, at the
top of the second page. On the first page, he only wrote the words
Account-Book, in pretty large letters.
“Now,” said her father, “whenever you want to buy any thing, you can
ask me or your mother; and if we approve of it, you can buy it, and I
shall write down what it is, and the price of it, on the page opposite
to the one where your allowance is entered; and then we can see, when
we open the book, how much your allowance comes to, by looking on one
side, and how many things you have bought with it, by looking on the
other.”
Lucy was very much pleased with her account-book, and she put it away
very carefully in her drawer. She determined to come every Saturday
evening, and have her allowance for the week regularly entered.
When, however, her account-book was out of sight, it was out of mind;
and several weeks passed away before she thought of it again. At last,
one day, as she and Royal were looking over her drawer, she found her
account-book.
“There,” said she, “now here is my account-book, and I haven’t had
any allowance for a great many weeks. Father said he would give me an
allowance every week.”
“You ought to have carried him your book, and he would,” said Royal.
“But I forgot it,” said Lucy; “and now I have forgotten how long it is,
and how much the allowance will make.”
So saying, Lucy was just beginning to cry.
“Why, Lucy, you silly child,” said Royal; “it’s nothing to cry for. It
will make no difference.”
“Why, I haven’t had my allowance,” said Lucy, “for a great many weeks.”
“No matter,” replied Royal; “father can put it all down together; it
will make no difference.” So Royal opened Lucy’s book, and explained to
Lucy how it would be.
“You see,” said he, “that when father put down the allowance before, it
was July 15th. Now, he can calculate, very easily, how many weeks it
is since then, till now, and so he can tell how much more allowance he
must put down. I can almost calculate it myself.”
Lucy did not answer, but looked upon the date in her account-book,
which Royal pointed at with his finger, trying to understand how it was.
“You see,” continued Royal, “that is the advantage of having
an account-book. It keeps the reckoning. As soon as you get an
account-book, and have the things put down, you may forget as much as
you please.”
Lucy carried the account-book to her father that evening; and she
found that it was as Royal had predicted. There was no difficulty at
all in ascertaining the amount of the allowance due, by calculating
from the date of the first entry. Lucy got her father to make the
calculation, and enter the amount due up to that time; and then
she went to put her book away, with a feeling of great relief and
satisfaction. She turned round, however, after she had gone a few steps
towards the door, and said,--
“You are not going to let me have the money, I suppose?”
“No,” said her father; “I keep the money for you,--until you want to
buy something with it.”
Nothing more was said about Lucy’s account-book for some days. At
length, however, one evening, as Lucy was playing upon the cricket near
the sofa, where her father was sitting, she came to him, and said,--
“Father, I wish you would just let me look at my money a little while.”
Her father hesitated a moment, and then put his hand into his pocket,
and drew out several pieces of silver money.
“Is that my money,” said Lucy, “or yours?”
Her father laughed, but did not answer.
“Father,” said Lucy earnestly, “_is_ that my money?”
“Why, Lucy,” he replied, “I don’t _keep_ any money for you separate
from my own.”
“O father,” said Lucy, “you said you would keep my money for me.”
“Yes,” said her father, “so I did; but I did not mean that I would
keep it separate.”
“How do you keep it, then?” said Lucy.
Her father laughed; but Lucy did not know what he was laughing at.
“Why, Lucy,” said he, “I keep your money, just as all bankers do the
money they have on deposit.”
“Deposit?” repeated Lucy.
“Yes,” replied her father. “Money that is placed in any body’s hands
for safe-keeping is said to be a deposit. Your money is deposited with
me.”
“Yes, sir,” said Lucy. So far she understood very well.
“Now, when money is deposited with a banker, he does not keep that
identical money separate from the rest.”
“I don’t know what you mean by _identical_ money,” said Lucy.
“Why, the _same_ money,--the very same.”
“And doesn’t he keep the money, then, at all?”
“No, not separately; he mixes it with his own money, and pays it away,
just as he does his own.”
“I shouldn’t think he ought to do that,” said Lucy, “if it was
deposited with him for safe-keeping.”
“Why, whenever the owner of the money comes to call for it, instead of
giving back the money, which was deposited, he just gives him the same
amount of his own money, and that is just as good. One dollar is as
good as another dollar.”
“O father!” said Lucy.
“Why, isn’t it?” said her father.
“O no, sir; some are a _great deal_ prettier.”
Here Lucy’s father laughed again very heartily, and concluded that Lucy
was rather too young to understand much about banking and finance.
However, he thought that he would not despair too soon. So he proceeded
thus:--
“Yes, Lucy, you are right; one dollar may be brighter and prettier
than another as a coin, to be used for a plaything; but when I agreed
to give you so much money each month, I did not mean so many coins for
playthings, but a certain amount of value for purchases. Now, in value,
and for use in making purchases, one dollar is as good as another; and
so, in almost all cases in reckoning accounts among men, they never
think at all of the particular money that they receive and pay, but
only of the value. When one man borrows ten dollars of another man, he
does not keep those same dollars to pay back to him again, but only
pays him other dollars as good. And when money is deposited with a
banker, he does not keep the same money, but puts it with his own, and
spends from it just as if it were his own; and then, when the man who
deposited the money with him, calls for it, he only gives him an equal
amount of his own.”
“Yes, father, I understand it now,” said Lucy.
“Just so with the money of your allowance. I don’t keep it separately
from my other money; I am only bound to let you have the amount in
value;--so that you see I can never give you your money to play with,
but only when you want to expend any of it, then I must supply you with
some of my own.”
Lucy seemed to be pretty well satisfied with this account; but still
she wished there was some way by which she could have some of her money
for a plaything.
“Well,” said her father, “we can manage it in this way. I will give you
a piece of money, and I will set it down in the account, just as if it
had been a plaything bought.”
So Lucy’s father took out several pieces of money from his purse,
and let Lucy look them over, telling her that she might take whichever
she chose. Then he entered the value of this piece of money in Lucy’s
account-book, on the page opposite to the one where the allowance was
entered. The account in this book was continued a long time. On one
page Lucy’s father entered her allowance from time to time, whenever
Lucy came to him and wanted her accounts made up; and on the other side
he entered such things as she purchased; and this was the way in which
Lucy got her first regular ideas of money and accounts.