y."

"I don't think I _waste_ my money," said Jacob.

"What, then, have you done with it?" asked the merchant.

"It costs me the whole amount of my salary to live."

The merchant shook his head.

"Then you live extravagantly for a young man of your age and condition.
How much do you pay for boarding?"

"Four dollars a week."

"Too much by from fifty cents to a dollar. But even paying that sum,
four more dollars per week ought to meet fully all your other expenses,
and leave you what would amount to nearly one hundred dollars per annum
to lay by. I saved nearly two hundred dollars a year on a salary no
larger than you receive."

"I should like very much to know how you did it. I can't save a cent;
in fact, I hardly ever have ten dollars in my pocket."

"Where does your money go, Jacob? In what way do you spend a hundred
dollars a year more than is necessary?"

"It is spent, I know; and that is pretty much all I can tell about it,"
replied Jacob.

"You can certainly tell by your private account-book."

"I don't keep any private account, sir."

"You don't?" in surprise.

"No, sir. What's the use? My salary is five hundred dollars a year, and
wouldn't be any more nor less if I kept an account of every half cent
of it."

"Humph!"

The merchant said no more. His mind was made up about his clerk. The
fact that he spent five hundred dollars a year, and kept no private
account, was enough for him.

"He'll never be any good to himself nor anybody else. Spend his whole
salary--humph! Keep no private account--humph!"

This was the opinion held of Jacob Jones by his employer from that day.
The reason why he had inquired as to how much money he had saved was
this. He had a nephew, a poor young man, who, like Jacob, was a clerk,
and showed a good deal of ability for business. His salary was rather
more than what Jacob received, and, like Jacob, he spent it all; but
not on himself. He supported, mainly, his mother and a younger brother
and sister. A good chance for a small, but safe beginning, was seen by
the uncle, which would require only about a thousand dollars as an
investment. In his opinion it would be just the thing for Jacob and the
nephew. Supposing that Jacob had four or five hundred dollars laid by,
it was his intention, if he approved of the thing, to furnish his
nephew with a like sum, in order to join him and to enter into
business. But the acknowledgment of Jacob that he had not saved a
dollar,