he stock, farming utensils, &c, which he
took with it, came to three hundred and sixty dollars. The purchaser
was to pay, of this money, four hundred dollars in three months,
and the balance in six months. Mary Erskine, therefore, had to make
provision for investing the four hundred dollars first.

She determined, after a great deal of consideration and inquiry, to
lay out this money in buying four shares in the Franconia bridge.
These shares were originally one hundred dollars each, but the bridge
had become so profitable on account of the number of persons that
passed it, and the amount of money which was consequently collected
for tolls, that the shares would sell for a hundred and ten dollars
each. This ten dollars advance over the original price of the shares,
is called _premium_. Upon the four shares which Mary Erskine was
going to buy, the premium would be of course forty dollars. This money
Mary Erskine concluded to borrow. Mr. Keep said that he would very
gladly lend it to her. Her plan was to pay the borrowed money back out
of the dividends which she would receive from her bridge shares. The
dividend was usually five per centum, or, as they commonly called
it, _five per cent._, that is, five dollars on every share of a
hundred dollars every six months.[A] The dividend on the four shares
would, of course, be twenty dollars, so that it would take two
dividends to pay off the forty dollar debt to Mr. Keep, besides a
little interest. When this was done, Mary Erskine would have property
in the bridge worth four hundred and forty dollars, without having
used any more than four hundred dollars of her farm money, and she
would continue to have forty dollars a year from it, as long as she
kept it in her possession.

[Footnote A: _Per_ is a Latin word meaning _for_, and
_centum_ another meaning _a hundred_.]

When the rest of the money for the farm was paid, Mary Erskine
resolved on purchasing a certain small, but very pleasant house with
it. This house was in the village, and she found on inquiry, that it
could be let to a family for fifty dollars a year. It is true that
a part of this fifty dollars would have to be expended every year in
making repairs upon the house, so as to keep it in good order; such as
painting it from time to time, and renewing the roof when the shingles
began to decay, and other similar things. But, then, Mary Erskine
found, on making a careful examination, that after expending as much
of t