One dollar and eighty-seven cents.

    That was all.

    And sixty cents of it
        was in pennies.

    Pennies saved one and two
           at a time
         by bulldozing the grocer
               and the vegetable man
             and the butcher
         until one's cheeks
              burned with the silent imputation
                   of parsimony
             that such close dealing implied.

    Three times Della counted it.

    One dollar
           and eighty- seven cents.

    And the next day
        would be Christmas.

    There was clearly nothing
           to do
         but flop
               down on
                the shabby little
                    couch and howl.

    So Della did it.

    Which instigates the moral reflection
         that life
            is made up of sobs,
           sniffles,
         and smiles,
           with sniffles predominating.

    While the mistress
           of the home
        is gradually
              subsiding from the first stage
                   to the second,
           take a
              look at the home.

    A furnished flat
           at $8 per week.

    It did
           not exactly beggar description,
         but it certainly had
             that word
                   on the lookout
                 for the mendicancy squad.

    In the vestibule below
        was a letter-box into
          which no letter would go,
           and an electric button from
              which no mortal finger
                could coax a ring.

    Also appertaining thereunto
        was a card
              bearing the name
         "Mr. James Dillingham Young."

    The
         "Dillingham"
            had been
              flung to the breeze
                  during a former period
                       of prosperity