The absolute
necessity to economize compels the ordinary young American couple to
learn the value of things--the value of a dollar and the value of
life.
They learn to "know how it comes," again to employ one of the wise
sayings of the common people. And the numberless experiences of their
first few years of comparative hardship are the very things necessary
to bring out in them sweetness, self-sacrifice, and uplifting
hardihood of character. In these sharp experiences, too, there is
greatest happiness. How many hundreds of times have you heard men and
women say of their early married years, "Those were the happiest days
of my life."
As a matter of good business on the one hand, and of sheer felicity on
the other hand, make the ideals of this new home of yours as high as
you possibly can. Don't make them so high that neither you nor any
other human being can live up to them, of course; but if you can put
them a notch beyond those even of the exalted standard of the old
home, by all means do it. Do it, that is, if you can live up to them.
It is remarkable what individual power grows out of clean living. It
is profitable also. The mere business value of a reputation for a high
quality of home life will be one of the best assets that you can
accumulate.
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