TWO CHRISTMAS STORIES By the Author of ‘Jessica’s First Prayer.’ _Uniform with this Volume, gilt, cloth limp, each with Frontispiece._ Price Sixpence each FRIENDS TILL DEATH. THE WORTH OF A BABY and HOW APPLE-TREE COURT WAS WON. 1 vol. MICHEL LORIO’S CROSS. OLD TRANSOME. For a list of other Works by the same Author, see the Catalogue at the end of this work. HENRY S. KING & CO., LONDON. [Illustration: ‘That’s an old waistcoat of mine.’ _See page 24._] TWO CHRISTMAS STORIES _SAM FRANKLIN’S SAVINGS-BANK_ _A MISERABLE CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR_ BY HESBA STRETTON AUTHOR OF ‘LOST GIP’ ‘CASSY’ ‘JESSICA’S FIRST PRAYER’ ETC. WITH TWO ILLUSTRATIONS _HENRY S. KING & CO., LONDON_ 1876 (_All rights reserved_) SAM FRANKLIN’S SAVINGS-BANK. If any one had told Sam Franklin before he married that he would ever save money out of his wages, he would have laughed the idea to scorn; they had never been more than enough when he had only himself to keep, and when there was a wife into the bargain, what chance would there be for him to have a penny to put by? Yet, before he had been a husband many weeks, he had made the discovery that the wages which had only been enough for one were rather more than enough for two. There were no dinners at the cookshops to be paid for, no long evenings spent in the public-houses, no laundresses’ bills to meet. He had a great deal more comfort with a somewhat smaller outlay. When Sam found half-a-crown in his pocket over and above the sum he allowed his wife for housekeeping and rent, he hardly knew what to do with it. His own fireside was very comfortable, and he did not care to leave it for the tavern. He and his wife were living on the first-floor of a house in a decent, quiet street, mostly occupied by artisans like himself, though the houses were from three to four stories high, and had been built for richer people. They had a sitting-room, with a bedroom behind it, and the use of a back kitchen for cooking and washing; so the place was quite large enough for comfort. Ann Franklin had notions of cleanliness and smartness, which made her take great pride in herself and all her belongings. The parlour, as she liked it to be called, was kept bright and cheerful, and that man must have had a strange idea of comfort who preferred the noise and smoke of a public-house taproom.