a second time. The waste by this
thriftlessness was great. I doubt not that some men must have been kept
poor by such want of proper oversight on the part of their wives, as I
know that it enriched the individual who gathered up the fat crumbs
which fell from their tables. I think it must be quite true that "fat
kitchens make lean wills."

These slight incidental confirmations of the theory of national
wastefulness came under my daily notice. I had heretofore overlooked
them, but now they attracted my attention. Then I had only to direct my
eye to other and higher fields of observation to be sure that it had
some foundation. The streets, the shop-windows, were eloquent witnesses
for it. The waste of clothing material consequent on the introduction of
hoop-skirts was seen to be prodigious. It was not only the poor thin
body that was now to be covered with finery, but the huge balloon in
which fashion required that that body should be enveloped. I thought,
now that the subject was one for study, that I could see it running
through almost every thing.

This wastefulness, then, was to be the ground on which the sewing-woman
was to rest her hopes of continued employment. It might be good
holding-ground in times of high general prosperity, when money was
abundant and circulation active; but how would it be when reverses of
any kind overtook the nation? As extravagance was the rule now, it
occurred to me that so would a stringent economy be the rule then, The
old hats that were usually thrown away upon the commons would be
rejuvenated and worn again,--the parsimony of one crisis seeking to make
up for the wastefulness of another; for when a sharp turn of hard times
comes round, everybody takes to economizing. There are older heads and
more observant minds than my own, that must remember how these things
have worked in bygone years. These have had the experience of a whole
lifetime to enable them to judge: I was a mere inquirer on the threshold
of a very brief one.

* * * * *

Our employment at the factory kept us comfortable. In time we were able
to earn something more than when we began. Our good pastor had lent us
the money with which to pay the reward for recovering my dear father's
body; and as my mother had a great dread of being in debt, we had
practised a most rigid economy at home in order to save enough to repay
him. This we did, a few dollars at a time, until we had finally paid the