entific budget-making.

CHAPTER XVII

THE DRESS BUDGET

There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that
withholdeth more than is meet and it tendeth to poverty.

_Proverbs._

Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

_St Paul._

Even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to
minister.

_Jesus._

CHAPTER XVII

THE DRESS BUDGET

The Country Girl has this advantage--the business of the farm and the
home are so closely connected that the work she has to do can be carried
on without separating her from her home. This would not be so in any
work she could undertake in the city. She would not have a great big
house to return to from her store or factory, but some little upstairs
room, the "hall-bedroom" of that tragic book _The Long Day_, which so
painfully portrays the conditions of work for girls in a great city. The
Country Girl in her home with her housework about her is in a paradise
compared with conditions such as these.

The "home" means rent, board, general living expenses--all these are
looked out for in the scheme of life for the Country Girl. Why, then,
does she feel so great a need for sheer money? The reason is partly
this: she has the dress problem on her hands. She is scantily supplied
with a bit now and then when she asks for a cloak or some other garment;
she is not assigned a certain sum a month, as her self-respecting spirit
demands, and left free to use it as her judgment directs. She has not
been trained to do this and the fear that she will not do it wisely
keeps the father from inaugurating such a system. In the long run, after
the daughter has gained wisdom from a few mistakes with the suffering
resulting therefrom, the outgo from the parental pocket would not be
much increased by adopting the educative method of letting her have the
personal management of her little budget. Few fathers can bear to see a
daughter really suffer; most fathers will not let her even foolishly
think that she is suffering, and a plea from her will generally bring an
indulgence in some unnecessary purchase.

The problem is intricate and has many sides; but we believe the best way
for the father to take would be to place a set sum at her command with
the injunction that she is to plan and use it carefully--and make it do!
If the parent is able to go so far in