"My Tobacco Money"

When I was about 16 years old a lot of the boys with whom I chummed began to use tobacco and they tried to get me to smoke or chew with them, but I had always disliked the tobacco habit so I told them they could smoke if they thought it would do them any good, but I was going to take the money they would spend for tobacco and put it in a fund and buy books with it. I asked several of them how much they spent a week on tobacco and took an average of the lot and laid that much away each week until I had accumulated a nice little sum which I spent for a set of books consisting of 16 volumes containing information of various topic that were very useful to me. I continued this until I had secured quite a little library. One Christmas day when the band of which I was a member came to our home to serenade, as was one of the good old customs, now nearly done away with and very seldom heard of. My uncle took occasion to show the members my library and told them that was bought with my tobacco money. They asked if I had been selling tobacco. "No," said my uncle, "He has stopped the sale as far as he is concerned. These books represent the money he would have spent if he had followed the fashion and been a smoker."

By William T. Morris