Nanny Joe says there are very few people--that is, very few people in Tweenit (they are doubtless plenty elsewhere)--who are willing, really willing, to give away half a dollar right out and out. She asked five individuals to contribute that sum toward the sewing-machine, and they refused; they were unmarried men, too, earning daily wages, which were spent freely in tobacco, confectionery, horse-hire, and other gratifications. Nanny says that half a dollar to be spent on one’s self is a modest, insignificant little affair; but, if to be given away, it grows so big it can hardly be got out of the pocket. I wonder how it would be if we all gave, not from pity, or from duty, but, as one may say, impersonally. For instance, I deny myself a pleasure that would cost two dollars, and bestow one costing the same sum upon Mrs. Knowles, saying to myself, “What matters it, since a pleasure is enjoyed, whether the individual Henry McKimber enjoys it, or the individual Hannah Knowles?” This, of course, is merely a hypothetical case. Mr. David has arrived at no such state of impersonality; neither has Mrs. Laura. I happened to be at their house when Nanny Joe called. Mr. David thought that Hannah Knowles might put out her children, and then go to the almshouse. He said he gave fifty cents three weeks before to help buy a new stove for Aunt Jinny under the hill; also that he felt poorer than common just then, on account of having between one hundred and two hundred dollars not drawing interest, waiting for him to find a safe way of investing it; also that his wife’s breaking her arm had been a great damage to him. Nanny Joe offered to accept potatoes, and dispose of them at Piper’s Mills. He said potatoes were a cash article, but finally agreed to her taking half a bushel. The tea-table was standing; and I observed that there was no lack of good things to eat. Mr. David, no doubt, takes it for granted that he must have his comforts, whatever others may lack. Perhaps he thinks this is true Bible doctrine. Mr. David is a very doctrinal man. Nanny Joe asked Mrs. Laura for some old pantaloons to make over for Mrs. Knowles’s son. Mrs. Laura replied that her husband and the boys were very hard on their pantaloons. There are two sons at home, Elbridge and Prince, tall, slim _boys_ of thirty-five or forty. Elbridge has a small face, and a comical, one-sided twinkle of the eye, which he takes from his father. [Illustration]