He is the bright, sharp
knife, always in use; not the idle blade, which had so narrowly
escaped, falling from the window, rusting to utter worthlessness in
the dew and rain.
IV.
A MYSTERY EXPLAINED.
"GOING to the Falls and to the White Mountains!"
"Yes, I'm off next week."
"How long will you be absent?"
"From ten days to two weeks."
"What will it cost?"
"I shall take a hundred dollars in my pocket-book! That will carry
me through."
"A hundred dollars! Where did you raise that sum? Who's the lender?
Tell him he can have another customer."
"I never borrow."
"Indeed! Then you've had a legacy."
"No, and never expect to have one. All my relations are poor."
"Then unravel the mystery. Say where the hundred dollars came from."
"The answer is easy. I saved it from my salary."
"What?"
"I saved it during the last six months for just this purpose, and
now I am to have two weeks of pleasure and profit combined."
"Impossible!"
"I have given you the fact."
"What is your salary, pray?"
"Six hundred a year."
"So I thought. But you don't mean to say that in six months you have
saved one hundred dollars out of three hundred?"
"Yes; that is just what I mean to say.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51