“I want as early as possible to make you capable of managing your own business affairs,” he said, stroking her hair, “so that if I should be taken from you—”
“O papa,” she interrupted, her eyes filling with sudden tears, “don’t talk about that! how could I ever bear it!”
“My child,” he said with a tender caress, “I am in perfect health and, coming of a long-lived race, seem as likely to live to extreme old age as any one I know; but life is uncertain to us all, and it is the part of wisdom to try to be prepared for any event. You inherit large wealth from your mother, but riches, as the Bible tells us, take wings and fly away; are especially apt to do so with a woman who knows little or nothing about business. I would not have you at the mercy of sharpers and fortune-hunters, so am determined not to allow you to grow up either too lazy or too ignorant to take care of your own affairs. I shall teach you how to write an order, a receipt for money, to make out a bill, and so on. But this lesson will do for to-day.”
“Now these forms you have filled out must be destroyed,” he went on, tearing them up and throwing the fragments into the fire as he spoke. “Do you understand why?”
“No, sir.”
“Because, bearing your signature, they would be honored at the bank where you have money on deposit; that is, any one getting hold of and presenting them at the bank would be paid the sums named in them out of your money, and then you would lose just that amount. So if you want to give or pay money to anybody, your check on a bank where you have money deposited will answer the same purpose as the cash; provided it be not drawn for a larger sum than you have there. Do you understand it all now?”
“Yes, papa, I think I do. May I tell Annis about it?”
“If you wish,” he said with a smile. “Annis is worthy of all confidence. You may take the check-book and go over your lesson to her; it will help to impress it on your memory.”
“Oh, thank you, sir!” and away she ran in search of her cousin.
Annis was still in Mildred’s room, chatting with her sister and playing with the baby.