Doesn't that count for anything? How many did we keep in the
city?"
"Four,--three women and a man."
"Then we give employment to eighteen more people at equally good wages
and in quite as wholesome surroundings. Do you realize, Polly, that the
maids in the house get $1300 out of the $5300,--one quarter of the
whole? Possibly there is a suspicion of extravagance on the home forty."
"Not a bit of it! You know that you proved to me that it cost us $5200 a
year for board and shelter in the city, and you only credit the farm
with $4000. That other $1200 would more than pay the extra wages. I
really don't think it costs as much to live here as it did on
B----Street, and any one can see the difference."
"You are right. If we call our plant an even $100,000, which at five per
cent would mean $5000 a year,--where can you get house, lawns, woods,
gardens, horses, dogs, servants, liberty, birds, and sun-dials on a wide
and liberal scale for $5000 a year, except on a farm like this? You
can't buy furs, diamonds, and yachts with such money anyhow or
anywhere, so personal expenditures must be left out of all our
calculations.
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