Cheaper by the Dozen

your idea anyway, Lillie. What do we do now?"
    "Well," Mother said doubtfully, "I had planned to get a plain violet-colored rug, and I had planned to spend a hundred dollars. But if the children think that's too much, and if they want flowers, I'm willing to let the majority rule."
    "I move," said Frank, "that not more than ninety-five dollars be spent."
    Dad shrugged his shoulders. If Mother didn't care, he certainly didn't.
    "So many as favor the motion to spend only ninety-five dollars, signify by saying aye."
    The motion carried unanimously.
    "Any more new business?"
    "I move," said Bill, "that we spend the five dollars we have saved to buy a collie puppy."
    "Hey, wait a minute," said Dad. The rug had been somewhat of a joke, but the dog question was serious. We had wanted a dog for years. Dad thought that any pet which didn't lay eggs was an extravagance that a man with twelve children could ill afford. He felt that if he surrendered on the dog question, there was no telling what the Council might vote next. He had a sickening mental picture of a bam full of ponies, a roadster for Anne, motorcycles, a swimming pool, and, ultimately, the poor house or a debtors' prison, if they still had such things.
    "Second the motion," said Lillian, yanking Dad out of his reverie.
    "A dog," said Jade, "would be a pet. Everyone in the family could pat him, and I would be his master."
    "A dog," said Dan, "would be a friend. He could eat scraps of food. He would save us waste and would save motions for the garbage man."
    "A dog," said Fred, "would keep burglars away. He would sleep on the foot of my bed, and I would wash him whenever he was dirty."
    "A dog," Dad mimicked, "would be an accursed nuisance. He would be our master. He would eat me out of house and home. He would spread fleas from the garret to the porte-cochere. He would be positive to sleep on the foot of my bed.
    Nobody would wash his filthy, dirty, flea-bitten carcass."
    He looked pleadingly at Mother.
    "Lillie, Lillie, open your eyes," he implored. "Don't yon see where this is leading us? Ponies, roadsters, trips to Hawaii, «ilk stocking*. rouge; and bobbed hair."
    "I think, dear," said Mother, "that we must rely on the good sense of the children. A five-dollar dog is not a trip to Hawaii."
    We voted, and there was only one negative ballot—Dad's. Mother abstained. In after years, as the collie grew older, shed hair on the furniture, bit the mailman, and did in fact try to appropriate the foot of Dad's bed, the chairman was heard to remark on occasion to the assistant chairman:
    "I give nightly praise to my Maker that I never cast a ballot to bring that lazy, disreputable, ill-tempered beast into what was once my home. I'm glad I had the courage to go on record as opposing that illegitimate, shameless flea-bag that now shares my bed and board. You abstainer, you!"

Chapter 6
Touch System

    Like most of Dad's and Mother's ideas, the Family Council was basically sound and, although it verged sometimes on the hysterical, brought results. Family purchasing committees, duly elected, bought the food, clothes, furniture, and athletic equipment A utilities committee levied one-cent fines on wasters of water and electricity. A projects committee saw that work was completed as scheduled. Allowances were decided by the Council, which also meted out rewards and punishment Despite Dad's forebodings, there were no ponies or roadsters.
    One purchasing committee found a large department store which gave us wholesale rates on everything from underwear to baseball gloves. Another bought canned goods directly from a manufacturer, in truckload lots.
    It was the Council, too, which worked out the system of submitting bids for unusual jobs to be done.
    When Lill was eight, she submitted a bid of forty-seven cents to paint a long, high fence in the back yard. Of course it was the lowest bid, and she got the job.
    "She's too young to try to paint that fence all by herself," Mother told Dad. "Don't let her do it."
    "Nonsense," said Dad. "She's got to learn the value of money and to keep agreements. Let her alone."
    Lill, who was saving for a pair of roller skates and wanted the money, kept insisting she could do it.
    "If you start it, you'll have to finish it," Dad said.
    "I'll finish it, Daddy. I know I can."
    "You've got yourself a contract, then."
    It took Lill ten days to finish the job, working every day after school and all day week ends. Her hands blistered, and some nights she