Part 8 (2/2)

One afternoon in late sualow in process of building, on a side street not so _very_ far froated idly, and found that the rent was thirty dollars less than ere paying Yet even then I hesitated

It was Max who had the courage to decide

”The only thing we are doing without is the address,” he said, ”And that isn't a loss that looks like 360 to aht a ready-made Tuxedo, and I ripped out the label and sewed in one froood tailor I carried half a dozen dresses froowns; and then I toted the calculated to impress any chance acquaintance We were so ashamed of our atteh we quarreled after we had been caught in some sudden temptation that set us back a pretty penny, and ere inevitably bored and cross e refused soayety for econos the others went to the theater club; and as resolutely we substituted a stiff gae that we could not afford But we had to learn to like them both

Occasionally we entertained at very small, very informal dinners, ”on account of the baby”; and definitely discarded the wines that added the ”smartness” demanded at formal affairs People came to those dinners in their second or third best: but they stayed late, and laughed hilariously to the last second of their stay

In the spring we celebrated Max's second respectable rise in salary by dropping out of the country club We could do without it by that tiht it necessary to substitute a deteraarden enthusiasts And as a substitution for hly reco out of the earthy end of a hoe

Later that sus I could do without, inal choosing A charwo Almost immediately, in spite of my inexperience, the bills dropped I could not cook rich pastries and fancy desserts, and fell back on siazines, followed on into technical articles on efficiency, substituted labor-savers wherever I could, and startedof the new year I tried et; and that was the year that we ean to save

That was six very short years ago When, with three babies, the bungalow became a trifle small, we built a little country house andthat first ”exclusive younger set” have roup that has wonderful times on incomes no one of which touches 4000 a year

Ours is not as h to leave a wide and coiven up his pipe for cigarettes (unood tailor for business reasons But in everything else our substitutions stand: gardening for golf; picnics for roadhouse dinners; si, siahts

We don't even talk about economies any more We like them

But--every Christs, and for Max a box of socks--heavy silk There never is any card in either box; but I think we'll probably get thened ”Mrs MFE,” arded the first prize by the _A Experience Has Taught Me”:

Forty Years Bartered for What?

A tiny bit of wisdom, but as vital as protoplasm I know, for I bartered forty precious years of wifehood andthe years of irlhood, our family passed from wealth to poverty My father and only brother were killed in battle during the Civil War; our slaves were freed; our plantationsthe Reconstruction days; our big town house was sold for taxes

When Iaet back our ” He was kind, easy-going, with a rare capacity for enjoying life and he loved his ith that chivalrous, unquestioning, ”the queen-can-do-no-wrong” type of love

But even in our days of courting I answered his ardent love- house; then ill--” etc, etc

And he? Ah, alone at sixty, I can still hear echoing down the years his big tender laugh, as he'd say, ”Oh, what a de-ah, ambitious little sweetheart I have!”

He owned a hoarden at one side of it--surely, with love, enough for any bride But I--I saw only the ancestralold house that had passed out of the hands of our family

I would have no honeymoon trip; I wanted the money instead John kissed each of ers closed greedily over the bills; it was the nest egg, the beginning

Next I had hio to his store--Southern ladies didn't do that in those days--but I kept the books at home, and I wrote all the business letters So it happened when John caht, tired from his day's work at the store, I had no ti, no hours to walk in the rose garden by his side--no, we ht--and su with perspiration as he dictated his letters tohot laers Outside there would be the evening breeze froht, the breath of the roses, all the roht--but not for us!

The children came--four, in quick succession But so fixed were oal of Success, I scarcely realized the mystery of motherhood Oh, I loved thely have laid down my life for him or for any one of the children And I intended _sometioing really to _live_ after we had bought back the big house, and had done so and so! In the lad,” I re one day to a friend, ”when all h to be off at school all day!” Think of that! Glad when the best years of our lives together were passed!

The day caed off to school and I no longer had a baby to haht it back and paid for it I no longer did John's bookkeeping for him--he paid a man a hundred dollars a month to do that--but I still kept my hand on the business