1. Paying the money.  This is the simplest plan.  If it is adopted, the money must be ready and be paid at the appointed time with the utmost exactitude and certainty.  Having made the arrangement with a child that he is to have a certain sum—­six cents, twelve cents, twenty-five cents, or more, as the case may be—­every Saturday night, the mother—­if it is the mother who has charge of the execution of the plan—­must consider it a sacred debt, and must be always ready.  She can not expect that her children will learn regularity, punctuality, and system in the management of their money affairs, if she sets them the example of laxity and forgetfulness in fulfilling her engagements, and offering excuses for non-payment when the time comes, instead of having the money ready when it is due.  The money, when paid, should not, in general, be carried by the children about the person, but they should be provided with a purse or other safe receptacle, which, however, should be entirely in their custody, and so exposed to all the accidents to which any carelessness in the custody would expose it.  The mother must remember that the very object of the plan is to have the children learn by experience to take care of money themselves, and that she defeats that object by virtually relieving them of this care.  It should, therefore, be paid to them with the greatest punctuality, especially at the first introduction of the system, and with the distinct understanding that the charge and care of keeping it devolves entirely upon them from the time of its passing into their hands.

2. Opening an account.  The second plan, and one that will prove much the most satisfactory in its working—­though many mothers will shrink from it on the ground that it would make them a great deal of trouble—­is to keep an account.  For this purpose a small book should be made, with as many leaves as there are children, so that for each account there can be two pages.  The book should be ruled for accounts, and the name of each child should be entered at the head of the two pages appropriated to his account.  Then, from time to time, the amount of his allowance that has fallen due should be entered on the credit side, and any payment made to him on the other.

The plan of keeping an account in this way obviates the necessity of paying money at stated times, for the account will show at any time how much is due.

There are some advantages in each of these modes.  Much depends on the age of the children, and still more upon the facilities which the father or mother have at hand for making entries in writing.  To a man of business, accustomed to accounts, who could have a book made small enough to go into his wallet, or to a mother who is systematic in her habits, and has in her work-table or her secretary facilities for writing at any time, the plan of opening an account will be found much the best.  It will afford an opportunity of giving the children a great deal of