The Lost Money

: STORIES _for_ LITTLE GIRLS
: Boys And Girls Bookshelf

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 an
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.



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