a few more pieces of
furniture than we had figured on, and the debt, in consequence, was
greater; but that meant merely a few months more to make payments.

It was fine furniture, too! Of course it has long since ceased to serve
us; but never in this world shall that dining set be duplicated! For
perfection of finish and loveliness of design, that first oak dining
table will linger in our memories for life. The one we now have cost
more than all the money we spent for all the furniture with which we
began housekeeping; and yet, figuring according to the joy it has
brought to us, it is poor in comparison.

And so it was, too, with the mahogany settee, upholstered in green
plush, and the beveled glass dresser, and the living-room chairs. We
used to make evening trips over to that flat merely for the joy of
admiring these things--our things; the first we had ever possessed.

Then came the night of June 27th. We had both looked forward to that
wonderful honeymoon trip up the lakes to Mackinac Island, and tomorrow
we were to start. But right then I am sure that both Mother and I wished
we might call it off. It seemed so foolish to go away from such a
beautiful flat and such lovely furniture.

The honeymoon trip lasted two weeks; and one day, at Mackinac Island, I
found Mother in tears.

"What the matter?" I asked.

"I want to go home!" she said. "I know I am silly and foolish, but I
want to get back to our own house and our own furniture, and arrange
our wedding presents, and hang the curtains, and put that set of
Haviland china in the cabinet!"

So back we came to begin our home-building in earnest.

The rent and the furniture installments came due regularly, just as we
had expected. So did the gas and electric light and telephone bills.
But, somehow or other, our dream figures and the actual realities did
not balance. There never was a month when there was as much left of our
eighty-seven dollars as we had figured there should have been.

For one thing, I was taken ill. That brought the doctor into the house;
and since then we have always had him to reckon with and to settle
with. Then there was an insurance policy to keep up. In our dream days,
the possibility of my dying sometime had never entered our heads; but
now it was an awful reality. And that quarterly premium developed a
distressing habit of falling due at the most inopportune times. Just
when we thought we should have at least twenty dollars for oursel