“When I was down in Lancashire the other day,” said Mr. Cobden to his fellow-townsmen at Midhurst, “I visited a mill, in company with some other gentlemen, and that mill belonged to a person whose real name I will not mention, but whom for the present purpose I will call Mr. Smith.  There could not have been less than three or four thousand persons engaged in this mill when it was at work, and there were seven hundred power-looms under one roof.  As we were coming away, one of the friends who accompanied me patted the owner of the mill on the shoulder, and with that frank and manly familiarity which rather distinguishes the Lancashire race, he said, ’Mr. Smith was a working man himself twenty-five years ago, and he owes all this entirely to his own industry and frugality.’  To which Mr. Smith immediately replied, in the same frank and good-humoured manner, ’Nay, I do not owe it all to myself; I married a wife with a fortune; for she was earning 9_s_ 6_d_. a week as a weaver at the power-loom, when she married me.’”

Thrift of Time is equal to thrift of money.  Franklin said, “Time is gold.”  If one wishes to earn money, it may be done by the proper use of time.  But time may also be spent in doing many good and noble actions.  It may be spent in learning, in study, in art, in science, in literature.  Time can be economized by system.  System is an arrangement to secure certain ends, so that no time may be lost in accomplishing them.  Every business man must be systematic and orderly.  So must every housewife.  There must be a place for everything, and everything in its place.  There must also be a time for everything, and everything must be done in time.

It is not necessary to show that economy is useful.  Nobody denies that thrift may be practised.  We see numerous examples of it.  What many men have already done, all other men may do.  Nor is thrift a painful virtue.  On the contrary, it enables us to avoid much contempt and many indignities.  It requires us to deny ourselves, but not to abstain from any proper enjoyment.  It provides many honest pleasures, of which thriftlessness and extravagance deprive us.

Let no man say that he cannot economize.  There are few persons who could not contrive to save a few shillings weekly.  In twenty years, three shillings saved weekly would amount to two hundred and forty pounds; and in ten years more, by addition of interest, to four hundred and twenty pounds.  Some may say that they cannot save nearly so much.  Well! begin with two shillings, one shilling, or even sixpence.  Begin somewhere; but, at all events, make a beginning.  Sixpence a week, deposited in the savings bank, will amount to forty pounds in twenty years, and seventy pounds in thirty years.  It is the habit of economizing and denying oneself that needs to be formed.

Thrift does not require superior courage, nor superior intellect, nor any superhuman virtue.  It merely requires common sense, and the power of resisting selfish enjoyments.  In fact, thrift is merely common sense in every-day working action.  It needs no fervent resolution, but only a little patient self-denial.  BEGIN is its device!  The more the habit of thrift is practised, the easier it becomes; and the sooner it compensates the self-denier for the sacrifices which it has imposed.