But, as time passed, the "big house" came to be the Mecca of all their
hopes, and penny by penny the savings grew. It was slow work, though,
and to hearts less courageous the thing would have seemed an
impossibility. No luxuries--and scarcely the bare necessities of life--
came to the little house under the hill, but every month a tiny sum
found its way into the savings bank. Fortunately, air and sunshine were
cheap, and, if inside the house there was lack of beauty and cheer,
outside there was a riotous wealth of color and bloom--the flowers under
Emily's loving care flourished and multiplied.

The few gowns in the modest trousseau had been turned inside out and
upside down, only to be dyed and turned and twisted all over again. But
what was a dyed gown, when one had all that money in the bank and the
big house on the hill in prospect! Reuben's best suit grew rusty and
seedy, but the man patiently, even gleefully, wore it as long as it
would hang together; and when the time came that new garments must be
bought for both husband and wife, only the cheapest and flimsiest of
material was purchased--but the money in the bank grew.

Reuben never smoked. While other men used the fragrant weed to calm
their weary brains and bodies, Reuben--ate peanuts. It had been a
curious passion of his, from the time when as a boy he was first
presented with a penny for his very own, to spend all his spare cash on
this peculiar luxury; and the slow munching of this plebeian delicacy
had the same soothing effect on him that a good cigar or an old clay
pipe had upon his brother-man. But from the day of his marriage all
this was changed; the dimes and the nickels bought no more peanuts, but
went to swell the common fund.

It is doubtful if even this heroic economy would have accomplished the