"When I was down in Lancashire the other day," said Mr. Cobden to his
fellow-townsmen at Midhurst, "I visited a mill, in company with some
other gentlemen, and that mill belonged to a person whose real name I
will not mention, but whom for the present purpose I will call Mr.
Smith. There could not have been less than three or four thousand
persons engaged in this mill when it was at work, and there were seven
hundred power-looms under one roof. As we were coming away, one of the
friends who accompanied me patted the owner of the mill on the shoulder,
and with that frank and manly familiarity which rather distinguishes the
Lancashire race, he said, 'Mr. Smith was a working man himself
twenty-five years ago, and he owes all this entirely to his own industry
and frugality.' To which Mr. Smith immediately replied, in the same
frank and good-humoured manner, 'Nay, I do not owe it all to myself; I
married a wife with a fortune; for she was earning 9_s_ 6_d_. a week as
a weaver at the power-loom, when she married me.'"

Thrift of Time is equal to thrift of money. Franklin said, "Time is
gold." If one wishes to earn money, it may be done by the proper use of
time. But time may also be spent in doing many good and noble actions.
It may be spent in learning, in study, in art, in science, in
literature. Time can be economized by system. System is an arrangement
to secure certain ends, so that no time may be lost in accomplishing
them. Every business man must be systematic and orderly. So must every
housewife. There must be a place for everything, and everything in its
place. There must also be a time for everything, and everything must be
done in time.

It is not necessary to show that economy is useful. Nobody denies that
thrift may be practised. We see numerous examples of it. What many men