Children Stories - The Lost Money

The following anecdote was told to myself, a few months after the curious event, by the three witnesses in the case. They were connections of my own, the father was a clergyman of the Anglican Church; he, his wife and their daughter, a girl of... Read more of The Girl In Pink at Scary Stories.ca

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The Lost Money

from Boys And Girls Bookshelf - STORIES _for_ LITTLE GIRLS

BY BOLTON HALL

Doris's papa gave her a five-dollar bill, such a lot of money! Doris
went to a big bank and asked if they could give her smaller money for
it. The banker said he thought they could. So he gave her two two-dollar
bills and a big silver dollar. How much did that make? Doris wanted the
dollar changed again; so the banker asked if she would have two
fifty-cent pieces, or one fifty-cent piece and two quarters--or perhaps
four quarters or ten dimes--or twenty five-cent pieces--or a hundred
pennies.

Doris thought a hundred pennies would be a good many to count and to
carry, so she said she would take two quarters, three dimes and four
five-cent pieces.

She laid away four dollars in the bank, those were the two bills, and
put the change in her purse. When she went to the shop, she had such a
lot of money that she thought she never could spend it. So she bought a
paint-box with two little saucers in it for 10 cents; that left her 90
cents; and then a big rubber balloon for 25 cents; that left 65 cents;
and a little one for 10 cents; and then Doris bought a whole pound of
candy for thirty cents. Out of the 25 cents she had left, it cost 10
cents to go in the car.

When Doris got home she opened her paint-box. What do you think? Of
course it was only a cheap paint-box and the paints were so hard that
they would not paint at all. Doris cut out the dolls, but they were no
better than those in any newspaper's colored supplement. Doris's mama
said that the candy was too bad to eat at all, and the rubber balloons
got wrinkled and soft in the night, because the gas went out of them.
Doris cried when she saw them. "Now," she said, "I have nothing left of
my beautiful dollar but 15 cents."

"I'm sorry, Dearie," Doris's mama said, "but it's bad enough to have
wasted one dollar without crying about it, too. When you and I go out,
we'll try to get such good things for the next dollar, that it will make
up for our mistake about this one." The next bright day they went to the
bank and got another dollar.

Now Doris's mama was a very wise person (mamas often are). So they went
to a store where there were some books that had been wet a little by the
firemen when the store caught fire. There they found a large, fine book
of animal stories with pictures in it that had been 50 cents, but the
book-store man sold it for 10 cents, because the back cover and a little
bit of the edge was stained with water and smoke.

That left--how much? Ninety cents. Doris's brother had told her he would
teach her to play marbles, so she bought six glass marbles for 5 cents
and a hoop with a stick for 5 more. That left 80 cents.

Then Doris asked if her mama thought she could buy a pair of roller
skates. Her mama said they could ask how much roller skates cost, but
the shopman said they were a dollar a pair! So Doris said she would save
up the 80 cents that was left of her dollar and wait until she had
enough for the skates.

However, a little boy was looking in at the window of the toy-shop and
he looked so sad, and so longingly at the toys, that Doris spoke to him,
and when he said he wanted one of the red balls, she bought it for 5
cents, and gave it to him. That left 75 cents.

When they got home, they told papa about the skates and he said he could
get them down-town for 75 cents, and he did.

So Doris learned by losing her first dollar, to get a lot of good things
that would be more useful and would last longer, with her second
dollar.

Next: A Dutch Treat
Previous: Dorothea's School Gifts

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