his money that he may be able to buy something which he is very anxious to have, and a miser who hoards up his money to look at it. What I wish you to do is, when you have any money, to think what you wish to do with it before you spend it; and if you don't learn to be provident with your little pocketmoney, you will make a very bad use indeed of a larger sum. This is the reason why I never give you any money besides your pocket-money, because, if you use it carefully, it should buy everything that you ought to require. If I were not to think well what I have to do with my money, we should want a great many comforts. You know our neighbour Simpson; he has as large an income as I have, and yet you see how very badly his house is furnished; and you told me that his boy does not get any regular pocketmoney at all. His father never thinks what he is going to do with his money, but just ends it on anything that he fancies at the time, and he is often greatly in want of money to buy clothes and food, such as a man in his position should have. when we were in the And you remember country last year, we went into two workmen's houses." "Yes, papa, I remember them so well, the one was so pretty and clean that mamma thought she would almost like to live in it; and the other was the dirtiest house I ever saw, and had scarce any furniture in it." "Well, I asked the farmer, whose workmen they were, about them, and he said they had both the same wages, but the one was careful how he spent his money, and by thinking beforehand what he really needed, he was always able to buy good clothes for his family, and pay for their schooling, and get nice furniture for his house, and had even some money in the savings bank; while the other, when he got his wages, would spend half of it foolishly, and never has anything to buy what he requires; his house, as you saw, is very uncomfortable, and he cannot pay for his children at school; and instead of having any money saved, he is in debt to everybody. Last winter they were both ill for three weeks; I gave them both a part of their wages, and the one, when I went to see him, had everything just as comfortable as usual; when I went into the other house, I found the children crying for bread, for they had tasted nothing all day, and the poor man lying shivering in bed because they had never had money to buy enough of blankets. So you see, Richard, what the results of improvidence are, and I have no doubt that if the teachers were everywhere to try to warn their scholars against it, we might perhaps see less misery in the world in a few years after this." 123 THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANT. A FABLE. A GRASSHOPPER, half-starved with cold and hunger, at the approach of winter, came to a well-stored ant-hill, and humbly begged the ants to relieve his wants with a few grains of corn. One of the ants asked him how he had spent his time all the summer; and why he had not laid up a store of food, like them? "Truly," said he, "I spent my time very merrily, in drinking, dancing, and singing, and never once thought of winter." 66 "Our plan is very different," said the ant; we work hard in the summer, to lay by a store of food against the season, when we foresee we shall want it; but those who do nothing but drink, and dance, and sing in the .summer, must expect to starve in the winter." POETICAL VERSION. A GRASSHOPPER, whose sprightly song, At length, when wintry gales assail her, The prudent, cautious ant, 'tis said, And (from this charge we'll not defend her), With importunity grown weary, She checks it with this single query. "Pray, neighbour, how d'ye spend your summer?" "I charm, ant, please you, every comer; All through the season, every day, I sing the merry hours away." "Oh!" cries the ant, and bars the door, Which safely guards her winter store, |