an increase in my children's
weekly allowance. What is yours now?"

"Fifty cents, papa."

"Where is your purse?"

She took it from her pocket, and put it into his hand.

"Only five cents in it," he remarked, with a smile, when he had
examined.

Then, taking a handful of loose change from his pocket, he counted out
four bright quarters and ten dimes, and poured them into her purse.

"O papa! so much!" she cried delightedly, "I feel ever so rich!"

He laughed at that. "Now," he said, "you shall have a dollar every week,
unless I should have to withdraw it on account of some sort of bad
behavior on your part. Max is to have the same; Gracie half a dollar
till she is a little older: and you are all to keep an account of your
spendings."

He took from another pocket, three little blank-books.

"One of these is for you: the others are for your brother and sister,"
he said. "See, there is a blank space for every day in the week; and,
Whenever you lay out any money, you must write down in the proper place
what it was that you bought, and how much it cost."

"And show it to you, papa?"

"Once in a while: probably, whenever I hand you your allowance, I shall
look over your account for the week that is just past, and tell you what
I think of the way you have laid out your money, in order to help you to
learn to spend it judiciously."

CHAPTER XVIII.

"Fortune is merry, And in this mood will give us any thing."

There was a sound of small, hurrying feet in the hall without, a tap at
the door; and Max's voice asked, "May we come in?"

"Yes," said his father; and instantly the door was thrown wide. Evelyn
came in with a quiet, lady-like step, and Max and Grace more
boisterously.

The captain rose, shook hands with Eva, set her a chair, and sat down
again, drawing Gracie to his arms, while Max stood at his side.

"Oh! what are those for?" he asked, catching sight of the blank-books.

"This is for you, this for Grace," the captain answered, bestowing them
as he spoke, then went on to repeat substantially what he had just been
saying to Lulu, and to replenish their purses as he had hers.

They were both delighted, both grateful.

Evelyn looked on, well pleased. "Now your allowance is just the same as
mine, and I am so glad," she said to Lulu. "I have never kept an
account; but I think it must be a good plan, and I mean to after this."

"There is another thing, children," said the captain: "any money tha