nothing was mean or uncomfortable. It is the character of true economy
to be as comfortable and genteel with a little, as others can be with
much. In this family, when the father brought home a package, the
older children would, of their own accord, put away the paper and
twine neatly, instead of throwing them in the fire, or tearing
them to pieces. If the little ones wanted a piece of twine to play
scratch-cradle, or spin a top, there it was, in readiness; and when
they threw it upon the floor, the older children had no need to be
told to put it again in its place.

The other day, I heard a mechanic say, 'I have a wife and two little
children; we live in a very small house; but, to save my life, I
cannot spend less than twelve hundred a year.' Another replied,
'You are not economical; I spend but eight hundred.' I thought to
myself,--'Neither of you pick up your twine and paper.' A third one,
who was present, was silent; but after they were gone, he said, 'I
keep house, and comfortably too, with a wife and children, for six
hundred a year; but I suppose they would have thought me mean, if I
had told them so.' I did not think him mean; it merely occurred to me
that his wife and children were in the habit of picking up paper and
twine.

Economy is generally despised as a low virtue, tending to make people
ungenerous and selfish. This is true of avarice; but it is not so
of economy. The man who is economical, is laying up for himself the
permanent power of being useful and generous. He who thoughtlessly
gives away ten dollars, when he owes a hundred more than he can pay,
deserves no praise,--he obeys a sudden impulse, more like instinct
than reason: it would be real charity to check this feeling; because
the good he does maybe doubtful, while the injury he does his family