soda-water and nick-nacks of various kinds--than for
their essentials, board, clothes, rooms. Then they wonder where all
their money goes to, as they never keep any account of it, and rarely
restrain a desire. They do not realize it when they fling out a nickel
here and a dime there, pay a quarter for this and a quarter for that; but
in a week it counts up, and in a year it amounts to a large sum.

"He never lays up a cent" is an expression which we hear every day
regarding those who earn enough to enable them to save a competence.

A short time ago, a young man in New York complained to a friend of
poverty and his inability to save money.

"How much do you spend for luxuries?" asked the friend.

"Luxuries!" answered the young man, "if by luxuries you mean cigars and a
few drinks, I don't average,--including an occasional cigar or a glass of
light wine for a friend,--over six dollars a week. Most of the boys
spend more, but I make it a rule to be moderate in my expenditures."

"Ten years ago," declared the friend, "I was spending about the same
every week for the same things, and paying thirty dollars a month for
five inconvenient rooms up four flights of stairs. I had just married
then, and one day I told my wife that I longed to have her in a place
befitting her needs and refinement. 'John,' was her reply, 'If you love
me well enough to give up two things which are not only useless, but
extremely harmful to you, we can, for what those things alone cost, own a
pretty home in ten years.'

"She sat down by me with a pencil and paper, and in less than five
minutes had demonstrated that she was right. You dined with me in the
suburbs the other day, and spoke of the beauty and convenience of our
cottage. That cottage cost three thousand dollars, and every dollar of
it was my former cigar and drink money. But I gained more than a happy
wife and pretty home by saving; I gained self-control, better health,
self-respect, a truer manhood, a more permanent happiness. I desire
every young man who is trying to secure pleasure through smoking and
drinking, whether moderately or immoderately, to make use of his
judgment, and pencil and paper, and see if he is not forfeiting in a
number of directions far more than he is gaining."

There is an impressive fact in the Gospel story of the Prodigal Son. The
statement "he wasted his substance in riotous living" means more than
that he wasted his funds. It implies that he w