Belle Moses

“ Beatrice nodded, “Yes, counting the quarter I slipped out for the reserve fund. I would n't have told you but for this; so we are really nine dollars and three quarters short.”
“I don’t see how you make it,” cried Tom, excitedly. “Let me count; girls are no good at calculation, anyhow.”
Beatrice shrugged her shoulders as Tom went to work, but the result was the same. Tom’s face was as grave as her own when he had finished. ”

“ Four weeks would set us straight.”
“But that ’s a long, penurious road to travel,” objected Tom. “I say, Bee; let us live in plenty for three weeks, and skimp us all you want during the fourth—I’d rather have it in a lump. Then there’s mother’s coming home to look forward to; and, in the meantime, the reserve fund must be handsomely fed.”
“Well, I won’t worry for three weeks,” Beatrice promised. And she kept her word, proving herself a most efficient housekeeper, and adding so often to the reserve fund from surplus stock that the little drum rattled louder and louder each day it was shaken. ”

“ You forget there are a good half-dozen of us, counting the servants, and it will be four weeks. I’m going to divide the money into four piles, and I think we ‘ll come out nicely.”
“But where ’s the reserve fund?” struck in Willie, airing the new words.
“Give it time—give it time; it’s a thing which grows by what we feed on,” laughed Tom, as he pocketed the check and went off.
“You ridiculous boy!” exclaimed Beatrice, later in the day, as Tom approached her, groaning under the weight of the bicycle-cap he carried with both hands. ”