it has been decreed in the privy council that my little boy shall have a weekly income of one cent. every sunday morning, that sum shall be paid to him, free of income-tax, out of the treasury and he has leave to dispose of it entirely at his own pleasure.
he receives this announcement with composure and sits apart for a while and ponders on it.
"every sunday?" he asks.
"every sunday."
"all the time till the summer holidays?"
"all the time till the summer holidays."
in the summer holidays, he is to go to the country, to stay with his godmother, in whose house he was pleased to allow himself to be born. the summer holidays are, consequently, the limits of his calculation of time: beyond them lies, for the moment, his nirvana.
and we employ this restricted horizon of ours to further our true happiness.
that is to say, we calculate, with the aid of the almanac, that, if everything goes as heretofore, there will be fifteen sundays before the summer holidays. we arrange a drawer with fifteen compartments and in each compartment we put one cent. thus we know exactly what we have and are able at any time to survey our financial status.
and, when he sees that great lot of cents lying there, my little boy's breast is filled with mad delight. he feels endlessly rich, safe for a long time. the courtyard rings with his bragging, with all that he is going to do with his money. his special favourites are invited to come up and view his treasure.
the first sunday passes in a normal fashion, as was to be expected.
he takes his cent and turns it straightway into a stick of chocolate of the best sort, with almonds on it and sugar, in short, an ideal stick in every way. the whole performance is over in five minutes: by that time, the stick of chocolate is gone, with the sole exception of a remnant in the corners of our mouth, which our ruthless mother wipes away, and a stain on our collar, which annoys us.
he sits by me, with a vacant little face, and swings his legs. i open the drawer and look at the empty space and at the fourteen others:
"so that's gone," i say.
my accent betrays a certain melancholy, which finds an echo in his breast. but he does not deliver himself of it at once.
"father . . . is it long till next sunday?"
"very long, my boy; ever so many days."
we sit a little, steeped in our own thoughts. then i say, pensively:
"now, if you had bought a top, you would perhaps have had more pleasure out of it. i know a place where there is a lovely top: red, with a green ring round it. it is just over the way, in the toy-shop. i saw it yesterday. i should be greatly mistaken if the toy-man was not willing to sell it for a cent. and you've got a whip, you know."
we go over the way and look at the top in the shop-window. it is really a splendid top.
"the shop's shut," says my little boy, despondently.
i look at him with surprise:
"yes, but what does that matter to us? anyway, we can't buy the top before next sunday. you see, you've spent your cent on chocolate. give me your handkerchief: there's still a bit on your cheek."
there is no more to be said. crestfallen and pensively, we go home. we sit a long time at the dining-room window, from which we can see the window of the shop.
during the course of the week, we look at the top daily, for it does not do to let one's love grow cold. one might so easily forget it. and the top shines always more seductively. we go in and make sure that the price is really in keeping with our means. we make the shop-keeper take a solemn oath to keep the top for us till sunday morning, even if boys should come and bid him much higher sums for it.
on sunday morning, we are on the spot before nine o'clock and acquire our treasure with trembling hands. and we play with it all day and sleep with it at night, until, on wednesday morning, it disappears without a trace, after the nasty manner which tops have.
when the turn comes of the next cent, something remarkable happens.
there is a boy in the courtyard who has a skipping-rope and my little boy, therefore, wants to have a skipping-rope too. but this is a difficult matter. careful enquiries establish the fact that a skipping-rope of the sort used by the upper classes is nowhere to be obtained for less than five cents.
the business is discussed as early as saturday:
"it's the simplest thing in the world," i say. "you must not spend your cent tomorrow. next sunday you must do the same and the next and the next. on the sunday after that, you will have saved your five cents and can buy your skipping-rope at once."
"when shall i get my skipping-rope then?"
"in five sundays from now."
he says nothing, but i can see that he does not think my idea very brilliant. in the course of the day, he derives, from sources unknown to me, an acquaintance with financial circumstances which he serves up to me on sunday morning in the following words:
"father, you must lend me five cents for the skipping-rope. if you will lend me five cents for the skipping-rope, i'll give you forty cents back. . . ."
he stands close to me, very red in the face and quite confused. i perceive that he is ripe for falling into the claws of the usurers:
"i don't do that sort of business, my boy," i say. "it wouldn't do you any good either. and you're not even in a position to do it, for you have only thirteen cents, as you know."
he collapses like one whose last hope is gone.
"let us just see," i say.
and we go to our drawer and stare at it long and deeply.
"we might perhaps manage it this way, that i give you five cents now. and then i should have your cent and the next four cents. . . ."
he interrupts me with a loud shout. i take out my purse, give him five cents and take one cent out of the drawer:
"that won't be pleasant next sunday," i say, "and the next and the next and the next. . . ."
but the thoughtless youth is gone.
of course, the instalments of his debt are paid off with great ceremony. he is always on the spot himself when the drawer is opened and sees how the requisite cent is removed and finds its way into my pocket instead of his.
the first time, all goes well. it is simply an amusing thing that i should have the cent; and the skipping-rope is still fresh in his memory, because of the pangs which he underwent before its purchase. next sunday, already the thing is not quite so pleasant and, when the fourth instalment falls due, my little boy's face looks very gloomy:
"is anything the matter?" i ask.
"i should so much like a stick of chocolate," he says, without looking at me.
"is that all? you can get one in a fortnight. by that time, you will have paid for the skipping-rope and the cent will be your own again."
"i should so much like to have the stick of chocolate now."
of course, i am full of the sincerest compassion, but i can't help it. what's gone is gone. we saw it with our own eyes and we know exactly where it has gone to. and, that sunday morning, we part in a dejected mood.
later in the day, however, i find him standing over the drawer with raised eyebrows and a pursed-up mouth. i sit down quietly and wait. and i do not have to wait long before i learn that his development as an economist is taking quite its normal course.
"father, suppose we moved the cent now from here into this sunday's place and i took it and bought the chocolate-stick. . . ."
"why, then you won't have your cent for the other sunday."
"i don't mind that, father. . . ."
we talk about it, and then we do it. and, with that, as a matter of course, we enter upon the most reckless peculations.
the very next sunday, he is clever enough to take the furthest cent, which lies just before the summer holidays. he pursues the path of vice without a scruple, until, at last, the blow falls and five long sundays come in a row without the least chance of a cent.
where should they come from? they were there. we know that. they are gone. we have spent them ourselves.
but, during those drab days of poverty, we sit every morning over the empty drawer and talk long and profoundly about that painful phenomenon, which is so simple and so easy to understand and which one must needs make the best of.
and we hope and trust that our experience will do us good, when, after our trip, we start a new set of cents.
