d to it. And suppose we should raise it one year and die next
year? He would feel worse than if he just went along in the old way.
When a man is fully adjusted to a thing it is the part of prudence, it
seems to me, just to let him alone."

"I wish we could--"

"Oh, well, if you want to; but I propose that we don't make them the
offer until next year or the year after. We shall have our matters
arranged better by that time."

"And now about Isaac Wickersham?"

"Have you seen him lately?"

"Two or three days ago."

"Did he seem discontented or unhappy?"

"No."

"You promised to help him?"

"What I said was, 'We are going to do something for you, Isaac'"

"Something! That commits us to nothing in particular. Was it your idea,
Mary Jane, to make him an allowance?"

"Yes."

"There you cut into our insufficient income again. I don't see how we
can afford it with all these expenses heaping up on us; really I don't."

"But we must give him something; I promised it."

George thought a moment and then said:

"This is the end of September and I sha'nt want this straw hat that I
have been wearing all summer. Suppose you give him that. A good straw
hat is 'something.'"

"You remember Mrs. Clausen, George?"

"Have we got to load up with her, too?"

"Let me explain. You recall that I told her I would try to make her
comfortable, and when I found that our circumstances were going to be
really straitened, I sent her my red flannel petticoat with my love, for
I know she can be comfortable in that."

"Of course she can."

"So this afternoon when I came up from the city she got out of the
train with me and I felt so half-ashamed of the gift that I pretended
not to see her and hurried out to the carriage and drove quickly up the
hill. She is afraid of horses, anyhow."

"Always was," said George.

"But, George, I don't feel quite right about it yet; the gift of a
petticoat is rather stingy, isn't it?"

"No, I don't think so."

"And, George, to be perfectly honest with ourselves now, don't you think
we are a little bit meaner than we were, say, last June?"

George cleared his throat and hesitated, and then he said:

"I admit nothing, excepting that the only people who are fit to have
money are the people who know how to take care of it."

OUR POLITE PARENTS

BY CAROLYN WELLS

SEDATE MAMMA

When guests were present, dear little Mabel
Climbed right up on the dinner-table
And naughtily sto