TWO CHRISTMAS STORIES
By the Author of ‘Jessica’s First Prayer.’
Uniform with this Volume, gilt, cloth limp, each with
Frontispiece.
Price Sixpence each
For a list of other Works by the same Author, see the
Catalogue at the end of this work.
HENRY S. KING & CO., LONDON.
‘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 hemarried that he would ever save money out of hiswages, he would have laughed the idea to scorn; theyhad never been more than enough when he had onlyhimself to keep, and when there was a wife into thebargain, what chance would there be for him to havea penny to put by? Yet, before he had been a husbandmany weeks, he had made the discovery thatthe wages which had only been enough for one wererather more than enough for two. There were nodinners at the cookshops to be paid for, no longevenings spent in the public-houses, no laundresses’bills to meet. He had a great deal more comfortwith a somewhat smaller outlay.
When Sam found half-a-crown in his pocket overand above the sum he allowed his wife for housekeepingand rent, he hardly knew what to do with it.[8]His own fireside was very comfortable, and he didnot care to leave it for the tavern. He and his wifewere 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 asitting-room, with a bedroom behind it, and the useof a back kitchen for cooking and washing; so the