of the fact that the
time to do your worrying is when a thing is all over, and that the way
to do it is to leave it to the neighbors. I sail for home to-morrow.

Your affectionate father,
JOHN GRAHAM.

+----------------------------+
| No. 19 |
+----------------------------+
| From John Graham, at the |
| New York house of Graham |
| & Co., to his son, |
| Pierrepont, at the Union |
| Stock Yards in Chicago. |
| The old man, on the |
| voyage home, has met a |
| girl who interests him |
| and who in turn seems to |
| be interested in Mr. |
| Pierrepont. |
+----------------------------+

XIX

NEW YORK, November 4, 189-

_Dear Pierrepont:_ Who is this Helen Heath, and what are your intentions
there? She knows a heap more about you than she ought to know if they're
not serious, and I know a heap less about her than I ought to know if
they are. Hadn't got out of sight of land before we'd become acquainted
somehow, and she's been treating me like a father clear across the
Atlantic. She's a mighty pretty girl, and a mighty nice girl, and a
mighty sensible girl--in fact she's so exactly the sort of girl I'd like
to see you marry that I'm afraid there's nothing in it.

Of course, your salary isn't a large one yet, but you can buy a whole
lot of happiness with fifty dollars a week when you have the right sort
of a woman for your purchasing agent. And while I don't go much on love
in a cottage, love in a flat, with fifty a week as a starter, is just
about right, if the girl is just about right. If she isn't, it doesn't
make any special difference how you start out, you're going to end up
all wrong.

Money ought never to be _the_ consideration in marriage, but it always
ought to be _a_ consideration. When a boy and a girl don't think enough
about money before the ceremony, they're going to have to think altogether
too much about it after; and when a man's doing sums at home evenings, it
comes kind of awkward for