Make my darling thine,
Though I am so human,
Make her all divine!
Slay the little foxes,
That both vines may be
Laden with fruit worthy
To be offered thee!”
LXXXIII.
WASTE NOT—WANT NOT.
MANY, particularly among the young, associate economy and frugality with meanness, ungenerousness, and a churlish, disobliging disposition.
“There would be no pleasure or comfort in living,” said a young lady, when a friend was endeavoring to show her the desirableness of “counting cost,” before entering upon any extravagant expenditures,—“there would be no comfort in living, if I must stop and consider the price,—adding up at every step, and deliberating upon the sum total before I dared to make a purchase; to say every minute, ‘Can I afford this?’ or, ‘Can I manage to do without that?’ To compel myself to study how I could alter over an old garment, how to change the trimmings so as to hide such piecing as must be done, before I could bring the article into usable shape, and at the same time preserve a genteel appearance; to pick up pins and needles, buttons and strings, keeping before my mind all the time the idea of economy and saving, in everything, small as well as great! Pshaw! I should feel so mean. I should despise myself, and think all my acquaintances would despise me also. I’d sooner spend what I have in a free-and-easy manner, taking what pleasure I could in it, as long as it lasted, and, when all was gone, go to the poorhouse or die! I do really think so.”