"He does this in giving them a liberal education, and he leaves them in banks that will always discount. But farther than education of intellect and propensity is concerned, I am for the self-made man. I think it better for sons to carve their own way to eminence with little pecuniary aid by way of a settlement; and for daughters to be 'won and wedded' for their own intrinsic excellence, not for the dowry in store for them from a rich father." "There is no arguing with you, everybody says; so I'll go and see how my cakes bake." Mr. Eastmam came in to tea, contrary to his usual custom. "Clarina, has your father sold that great calf of his?" he inquired, as he seated himself snugly beside his "better half." "Indeed, I do not know, sir," answered Clarina, biting her lip to avoid laughing. "I heard Mr. Montgomery ask him the same question, this morning; and Pa said 'yes,' I believe," said Miss Norwood, smiling. "How much did he get for it?" Miss Norwood did not know. "Like Mary, I see," said Mr. Eastman. "Now I'll warrant you that Debby can tell the price of every creature I've sold this year." "Yes, father; I remember as plain as day, how much you got from that simple Joe Slater, for the white-faced calf--how much you got for the black-faced sheep, Rowley and Jumble, and for Star and Bright. Oh, how I want to see Bright! And then there is the black colt--you got forty dollars for him, didn't you, father?" "Yes, Debby; you are a keen one," said Mr. Eastman triumphantly. "Didn't I tell you so, Julia?" "I do not burden my memory with superfluities," answered Miss Norwood. "I can scarcely find room for necessaries." "And do you rank the best way of making pies, cakes, and puddings, with necessaries or superfluities?" "Among necessaries in household economy, certainly," answered Miss Norwood. "But Mrs. Child's 'Frugal Housewife' renders them superfluities as a part of memory's storage." "Oh, the book costs something, you know; and if this can be saved by a little exercise of the memory, it is well, you know." "The most capacious and retentive memory would fail to treasure up and retain all that one wishes to know of cooking and other matters," said Clarina. "Well, then, one may copy from her book," said Mr. Eastman. "Indeed, Mr. Eastman, to spend one's time in copying her recipes, when the work can be purchased for twenty-five cents, would be 'straining out a gnat, and swallowing a camel,'" remarked the precise and somewhat pedantic Miss Ellinor Gould Smith. "And then the peculiar disadvantages of referring to manuscript! I had my surfeit of this before the publication of her valuable work." "Ah! it is every thing but valuable," answered Mr. Eastman. "Just think of her pounds of sugar, her two pounds of butter, her dozen eggs, and ounces of nutmegs. Depend upon it, they are not very valuable in the holes they would make in our cash-bags." He said this with precisely the air of one who imagines he has uttered a poser.