Original in GOOD HOUSEKEEPING. TEN DOLLARS ENOUGH. KEEPING HOUSE WELL ON TEN DOLLARS A WEEK. HOW IT HAS CHAPTER I. MR. AND MRS. BISHOP TRY THE EXPERIMENT. EEF steak, cod steak, mutton This bill-of-fare glibly rattled off by a neat waitress, promised a very satisfying breakfast, supplemented as it was, with abundant cream of tartar biscuit and potatoes. Yet Mrs. Bishop thought this morning, as she had done for three hundred out of the three hundred and sixtyfive mornings she had heard it, she would gladly have exchanged all for a cup of really fine coffee, a fresh egg, and some good home made bread and butter. Needless to say, Mr. and Mrs. Bishop were boarding, and doing so at a very good house, for the money they were able to pay, $20 per week for the two. Yet to this couple, reared with luxury and refinement, the very abundance was nauseating. dear." Pressing a hearty kiss on her soft cheek, he rushed down the stairs and out of the house. There was quite a little romance about this young couple, which I will relate here, that those who may follow the young wife's trials and triumphs, may understand some that she had to fear. Harry Bishop was the son of a prosperous merchant, who, as is the fashion in this America of ours, lived almost like a prince on the profits of his business, but as his family was large, and his wife ambitious and extravagant, it was not very certain that he would be able to provide a fortune for each of his children, for this reason he and Mrs. Bishop were anxious that those children should marry money. When Harry declared his intention of marrying, instead of the rich Miss Vanderpool his mother had looked out for him, pretty, penniless, Molly Marsh, the anger and disappointment at home had been very great, and although it is not the fashion in this country, to cast off the sons and daughters who make rash marriages, they did the next thing to it, they disapproved so strongly that Molly rarely visited the grand home Harry had given up to marry her, and Harry's father in his anger had said: "Do you remember sir, that your paltry salary wouldn't pay the rent of a house in a decent location? and you propose to keep a wife on it! One thing you may be sure, as you make your bed you must lie on it,' and when you have a mass of unpaid bills, you mustn't look to me to pay 'em." "I never will sir, I am sorry for Molly's sake you take it like this, but I hope in time you will see that I am right to choose happiness instead of riches." And then Harry's mother had pictured the sordid home "You ate no breakfast again, Puss, what am I to do with kept on $100 a month, and derisively asked if he supposed you?" "Oh, I shall do very well, I am sure one has nothing to complain of, and if Mrs Jones were to cater to our tastes she would not satisfy her other boarders." "Yes, there is a coarse substantial abundance about it, that always strikes me with wonder as to how it is done for the money "And yet, Harry, wouldn't you enjoy a nice little breakfast for our two selves? Oh, if we could only keep house!" "My darling, I wish to keep house just as much as you do, but with my income, such housekeeping would be very different from what you think. You would have to count the table cloths and napkins and stint yourself in everything, to make both ends meet." "I wish I could convince you, Harry, that it need not be so. You don't know what a good manager I should be." "Dear little woman, I couldn't have you make a drudge of yourself, and believe me you don't realize the difference between practice and theory; I know several men who have good self-denying wives, and just my income, but I could not look forward to the narrowness of such houses as theirs, nor wish to see you in one; while we are boarding we can't pretend to have a home, there is no temptation to ask a friend to a meal, no shame if one comes and it isn't good." Mrs. Bishop turned a smiling face on her husband. "That is the secret, Harry. You are afraid of being ashamed of my housekeeping. Shall I promise you that you shall never dread to bring a friend home for fear of a soiled table cloth, and a too economical dinner? I assure you I haven't been to cooking schools for nothing." he would be happy after the honeymoon was over, eating common coarse food in a shabby little dining-room. "The idea of it! You are the last person Harry to content yourself in that way. Why you criticise even my cook, how will you do with no cook at all?" "I shouldn't criticise, dear mother, if you did the cooking." They had been married a year now, and Molly and Harry paid rare visits to his father's house, and she, poor young wife, was made to feel how much her husband had sacrificed for her, and she knew good as Harry was, he would be rather exacting in his own home; though for love of her, he might not express himself, small deficiencies would jar on him, and that in beginning to keep house she would be undertaking a great deal. "But that will be my share. If by devoting time to my housekeeping, I can make Harry's money go half as far again as it would otherwise do, I shall do as much as if I earned half as much as he." And so during that year of boarding and leisure, Molly had attended cooking classes, with a married friend, and had gone home with her and they had practised together. She had read too, everything she could find about housekeeping, and Harry laughed sometimes, till the tears ran down his cheeks at what he called her "paper housekeeping." Yet her pictures of that ideal home they were to have, were "You dear enthusiast! If it were not for your own sake "What plot are you brewing?" Mrs. Bishop executed a little dance of joy. "Oh, Harry, you can't go back on that, you mustn't! Do let us go through this winter in our own house." Mr. Bishop only said, taking out his watch How would you like to pass a winter in the country?" "I shouldn't mind, why do you ask?" "Because we can put your longed-for experiment to the test. John Winfield is going to take his wife to Europe on the first of September, and wants to let his cottage furnished "By jove! I have only time to catch the car. Good bye, for the bare rent he pays: $25 per month." |