Two or three weeks passed, and then the long silent dwelling of Andy Lovell was filled with the voices of children.  Two or three years have passed since then.  How is it with Andy?  There is not a more cheerful man in all the village, though he is in his shop early and late.  No more complaints from customers.  Every one is promptly and cheerfully served.  He has the largest run of work, as of old; and his income is sufficient not only to meet increased expenses, but to leave a surplus at the end of every year.  He is the bright, sharp knife, always in use; not the idle blade, which had so narrowly escaped, falling from the window, rusting to utter worthlessness in the dew and rain.

IV.

A mystery explained.

“Going to the Falls and to the White Mountains!”

“Yes, I’m off next week.”

“How long will you be absent?”

“From ten days to two weeks.”

“What will it cost?”

“I shall take a hundred dollars in my pocket-book!  That will carry me through.”

“A hundred dollars!  Where did you raise that sum?  Who’s the lender?  Tell him he can have another customer.”

“I never borrow.”

“Indeed!  Then you’ve had a legacy.”

“No, and never expect to have one.  All my relations are poor.”

“Then unravel the mystery.  Say where the hundred dollars came from.”

“The answer is easy.  I saved it from my salary.”

“What?”

“I saved it during the last six months for just this purpose, and now I am to have two weeks of pleasure and profit combined.”

“Impossible!”

“I have given you the fact.”

“What is your salary, pray?”

“Six hundred a year.”

“So I thought.  But you don’t mean to say that in six months you have saved one hundred dollars out of three hundred?”

“Yes; that is just what I mean to say.”

“Preposterous.  I get six hundred, and am in debt.”

“No wonder.”

“Why no wonder?”

“If a man spends more than he receives, he will fall in debt.”

“Of course he will.  But on a salary of six hundred, how is it possible for a man to keep out of debt?”

“By spending less than he receives.”

“That is easily said.”

“And as easily done.  All that is wanted is prudent forethought, integrity of purpose, and self-denial.  He must take care of the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves.”

“Trite and obsolete.”

“True if trite; and never obsolete.  It is as good doctrine to-day as it was in poor Richard’s time.  Of that I can bear witness.”

“I could never be a miser or a skinflint.”

“Nor I. But I can refuse to waste my money in unconsidered trifles, and so keep it for more important things; for a trip to Niagara and the White Mountains, for instance.”