d, the
third room we used for a sitting-and dining-room, while the fourth was
a small kitchen with running water. As compared with our house the
quarters at first seemed cramped, but we had cut down our furniture to
what was absolutely essential, and as soon as our eyes ceased making
the comparison we were surprised to find how comfortable we were. In
the dining-room, for instance, we had nothing but three chairs, a
folding table and a closet for the dishes. Lounging chairs and so
forth we did away with altogether. Nor was there any need of making
provision for possible guests. Here throughout the whole house was the
greatest saving. I took a fierce pleasure at first in thus caring for
my own alone.

The boy's room contained a cot, a chair, a rug and a few of his
personal treasures; our own room contained just the bed, chair and
washstand. Ruth added a few touches with pictures and odds and ends
that took off the bare aspect without cluttering up. In two weeks
these scant quarters were every whit as much home as our tidy little
house had been. That was Ruth's part in it. She'd make a home out of a
prison.

On the second day we were fairly settled, and that night after the boy
had gone to bed Ruth sat down at my side with a pad and pencil in her
hand.

"Billy," she said, "there's one thing we're going to do in this new
beginning: we're going to save--if it's only ten cents a week."

I shook my head doubtfully.

"I'm afraid you can't until I get a raise," I said.

"We tried waiting for raises before," she answered.

"I know, but--"

"There aren't going to be any buts," she answered decidedly.

"But six dollars a week--"

"Is six dollars a week," she broke in. "We must live on five-fifty,
that's all."

"With steak thirty cents a pound?"

"We won't have steak. That's the point. Our neighbors around here
don't look starved, and they have larger families than ours. And they
don't even buy intelligently."

"How do you know that?"

"I've been watching them at the little stores in the square. They pay
there as much for half-decayed stuff as they'd have to pay for fresh
odds and ends at the big market."

She rested her pad upon her knee.

"Now in the first place, Billy, we're going to live much more simply."

"We've never been extravagant," I said.

"Not in a way," she answered slowly, "but in another way we have. I've
been doing a lot of thinking in the last few days and I see now where
we've had a grea