y told us that the
people we would meet represented the higher order of intelligence,
brainy, alert, accomplished--a grand thoroughfare for those who would
know life in the fullness thereof.

Now it is a fact that "Easy Street" may be crossed and recrossed in
safety every day of our lives if we do not tarry. Financial competence
might permit of it, but competent efficiency demands that we trot
along--_keep moving_--get away before we settle down into its ways. The
action we need is not along this brilliant lane.

But suppose we do take a chance just to test the serene confidence which
we think is so safely nailed down within us. The very thought of it
makes the "caution bell" tinkle in our ears--but caution is a species of
cowardice, after all, we say--a man of _courage_ may dare anything
_once_. And just at the moment we waver who comes along but our old
friend _Self-indulgence_!--the well dressed, carefree fellow who once
told us all about "Easy Street" and invited us to look in on him
sometime. Nothing would please him more than to show us the whole
works--and here he is shaking us by the hand and pulling us along--for
he is an affable fellow and will not take "no" for an answer.

Our struggle is feeble--a huge chunk of our strength of character falls
off into space then and there. Even at the gilded entrance we try again
to beg off--to slip away--but Self-indulgence will not hear. So together
we go through the portals leading into a grandeur we had never
known--beyond our experience and power to believe. _This is likely to
become the turning point in our career._

Bill Nye once said "When we start down hill we usually find everything
greased for the occasion." We might add--"_except the bumps_!"

CHAPTER XIV

LIVING BEYOND OUR MEANS

Living beyond our means is a big subject that must be treated broadly,
for circumstances alter cases. There is a sane way to look at every
problem, and the matter of living beyond our means is one of the major
problems we have to face. If every man was alike and every avocation in
life was on a parity, it would be possible to dispose of this subject in
a paragraph. But men are not alike. What one could do successfully might
easily baffle another. Therefore, it seems advisable to consider the
subject by looking into its depths.

To most people debt is terrifying. To some it means nothing--and thus we
have individual temperament as an angle from which to consider. Living