A story which gives a picture of the drudgery so great that they were always careful to save themselves the smallest extra task is of the old farmer sitting with his wife beside the kitchen table in the evening. A newspaper is in his hand, a kerosene lamp illuminates the room, and his feet, incased in woolen stockings, are in the cooling oven. The grandfather’s clock strikes nine.
“Time to go to bed, Maria.”
“Yes, Eben.”
She precedes him with the lamp, and he follows with his shoes in his hand. At the foot of the staircase he stops and says:
“Did you wipe the sink, Maria?”
“Why, of course!”
They proceed. When she is at the top and he is half way up, she leans over the balustrade, saying:
“What made you ask me that, Eben?”
“Well, I did feel as if I’d like a drink of water, but if you’ve wiped the sink I guess I’ll put it off till to-morrer.”
There are many stories of the Yankee thrift, but one very old one is hard to beat. A farmer, in the days when a grocer also kept a bar, drives up to the country store and says: