The Sum of Trifles

OR,

"A PENNY SAVED IS A PENNY GAINED."

"SAVING? Don't talk to me about saving!" said one journeyman mechanic to another. "What can a man with a wife and three children save out of eight dollars a week?"

"Not much, certainly," was replied. "But still, if he is careful, he may save a little."

"Precious little!" briefly returned the other, with something like contempt in his tone.

"Even a little is worth saving," was answered to this. "You know the old proverb, 'Many littles make a mickle.' Fifty cents laid by every week will amount to twenty-six dollars in a year."

"Of course, that's clear enough. And a dollar saved every week will give the handsome sum of fifty-two dollars a year. Bat how is the half-dollar or the dollar to be saved, I should like to know? I can't do it, I am sure."

"I can, then, and my family is just as large as yours, and my wages no higher."

"If you say so, I am bound to believe you, but I must own myself unable to see how you do it. Pray, how much do you save?"

"I have saved about seventy-five dollars a year for the last two years."

"You have!" in surprise.

"Yes, and I have it all snugly in the Savings' Bank."

"Bless me! How have you possibly managed to do this? For my part, it is as much as I can do to keep out of debt. My wife is as hard-working, saving a woman as is to be found anywhere. But all won't do. I expect my nose will be at the grindstone all my life."

"How much does your tobacco cost you, Johnson?" asked his companion.

"Nothing, to speak of. A mere trifle," replied the man named Johnson.

"A shilling a week?"

"About that."

"And you take something to drink, now and then?"

"Nothing but a little beer. I never use any thing stronger."

"I suppose you never take, on an average, more than a glass a day?"

"No, nor that."

"But you occasionally ask a friend to take a glass with you?"

"Of course, that is a thing we all must do, sometimes--"

"Which will make the cost to you about equal to a glass a day?"

"I suppose it will; but that's nothing."

"Six glasses a week at sixpence each, will make just the sum of three shillings, which added to the cost of tobacco, will make fifty cents a week for beer and tobacco, or what would amount to a hundred dollars and over in four years."

"Dear knows, a poor mechanic has few enough comforts without depriving himself of trifles like these," said Johnson.

"By giving up such trifles as these, for trifles they