"No," was replied. "I often try to persuade her to do so; but she never thinks she can spare time. She has all the work to do, and three children to see after; and one of them, you know, is a baby."
"Do you know that this day's holiday once a month, costs you exactly twenty-two dollars a year?"
"No, certainly not, for it costs no such thing."
"Well, let us see. Your wages per day come to one dollar thirty-three cents and one-third. This sum multiplied by twelve, the number of days lost in the year, gives sixteen dollars. Half a dollar spent a day for twelve days makes six dollars, and six dollars added to sixteen amount to twenty-two. Now, have I not calculated it fairly?"
"I believe you have," replied Johnson, in an altered tone. "But I never could have believed it."
"Add to this, thirteen dollars a year that you pay for oysters, and you have—"
"Not so fast, if you please. I spend no such sum as you name, in oysters."
"Let us try our multiplication again," coolly remarked the friend. "Twenty-five cents a week multiplied into fifty-two weeks, gives exactly thirteen dollars. Isn't it so?"
"Humph! I believe you are right. But I never would have thought of it."
"Add this thirteen dollars to the twenty-two it costs you for twelve holidays in the year, and this again to the price of your beer and tobacco, and you will have just sixty-one dollars a year that might be saved. A little more careful examination into your expenses, would, no doubt, detect the sum of fourteen dollars that might be as well saved as not, which added to the sixty-one dollars, will make seventy-five dollars a year uselessly spent, the exact sum I am able to put into the Savings' Bank."