trig, and neat; the hearthstone was fresh sanded; the wife, though
her hands were full of work, was clean and tidy; and her husband, his
day's work over, could sit down with his children about him, in peace
and comfort.

The _chief secret_ was now revealed. Ransom's secret, about the penny,
was a very good one, so far as it went. But he had not really told the
whole truth. He could not venture to tell his less fortunate comrade
that the root of all domestic prosperity, the mainstay of all domestic
comfort, is _the wife_; and Ransom's wife was all that a working man
could desire. There can be no thrift, nor economy, nor comfort at home,
unless the wife helps;--and a working man's wife, more than any other
man's; for she is wife, Housekeeper, nurse, and servant, all in one. If
she be thriftless, putting money into her hands is like pouring water
through a sieve. Let her be frugal, and she will make her home a place
of comfort, and she will also make her husband's life happy,--if she do
not lay the foundation of his prosperity and fortune.

One would scarcely expect that for a penny a day it would be possible to
obtain anything valuable. And yet it may be easily shown how much a
penny a day, carefully expended, might do towards securing a man's
independence, and providing his wife and family against the future
pressure of poverty and want.

Take up a prospectus and tables of a Provident Society, intended for the
use of those classes who have a penny a day to spend,--that is, nearly
all the working classes of the country. It is not necessary to specify
any particular society, because the best all proceed upon the same
data,--the results of extensive observations and experience of health
and sickness;--and their tables of rates, certified by public actuaries,
are very nearly the same. Now, looking at the tables of these Life and
Sickness Assurance Societies, let us see what a penny a day can do.

1. For _a penny a day_, a man or woman of twenty-six years of age may
secure the sum of ten shillings a week payable during the time of
sickness, for the whole of life.

2. For _a penny a day_ (payments ceasing at sixty years of age), a man
or woman of thirty-one years of age may secure the sum of L50 payable at
death, whenever that event may happen, even though it should be during
the week or the month after the assurance has been effected.

3. For _a penny a day_, a young man or woman of fifteen may secure a sum
of L100, th