PERCY: I once heard grandmother say that when she saw a man with a lighted cigar, the thought came into her mind, “A fire at one end and a fool at the other.” It does seem foolish to waste money that way. I wish I had some of it that goes up in smoke to send me to college when I am ready to go. MOTHER: Here is a picture which I think shows this matter in about the right light. HELEN: Why, what are those people burning in that big fire? MOTHER: Money, money--nothing but money. Here is a rich man; he is throwing in one thousand dollars; and here is another, who is bringing one hundred pounds. Others are throwing in different sums, some less, some more. See how many young men there are who need that money for something else. ELMER: And see the workingmen, too. [Illustration: A crowd apparently burning money] MOTHER: Yes; and many of them have no homes, and they wear poor clothes, and eat very plain food. They need many things. It may be the wife at home has not had a new dress for years, and the children have no shoes. AMY: And just see the little boys burning up their money, too! MOTHER: How very sad! They are only children, and yet they throw away their pennies and dimes. What are all these people getting for their money? HELEN: Smoke--nothing but smoke. MOTHER: They get smoke, it is true, but they also get pains and aches. Tobacco laughs as it takes their money, and grows larger and stronger every day. PERCY: But, mother, can nothing be done to stop their burning up money like that? MOTHER: You think some one should call out, “Stop, thief!” do you? Perhaps that was what King James, of England, thought; for when people began using it in that country, he wrote a book, in which he said that smoking was “loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, and dangerous to the lungs.” The Russian Government tried to put a stop to smoking by saying that if a person were caught using tobacco, his nose should be cut off. Perhaps it was thought that people who abuse smelling that way had no right to have a nose. The sultan of Turkey once put to death those who smoked, or used snuff. PERCY: I should think such laws would have stopped its use in a little while.