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Show Harmonious S Union By Richard Hill Wilkinson IT WAS incredible that Tony and Leah Cranston should have quarreled quar-reled over so small a thing. The neighbors would have been horrified, horri-fied, for the neighbors thought no two people were more ideally suited. The neighbors were right, too. Tony and Leah were harmoniously united. They were deeply in S-Minute love. There was Fiction Perfect under- riCIIOn Etanding betWeen them. Then one day Tony came home from work and went into the bedroom bed-room to freshen up for dinner and; found two five dollar bills and some change lying on the bureau. He scooped up the money. "Hey," he said good naturedly, "we can't afford this. I found this money lying on the bureau. It might have blown away. Don't be so forgetful!" for-getful!" Leah smiled. "Oh, my!" she said. "Did I leave the change from the grocer there?" A week later Tony discovered a dollar bill where it had been idly dropped on the living room table and forgotten. "Listen, honey, you've got to be more careful. Money is pretty important to us right now." "I'm sorry," said Leah, "but It's only a dollar." "We can't afford to lose a dollar or even a part of a dollar," dol-lar," Tony said, smiling. The next time the time Tony discovered dis-covered three dollars on the kitchen tables and one on the floor, where it had blown he didn't smile. "Good gosh, woman! Show a little more consideration, will you! If I hadn't noticed that dollar on the floor it would have been lost." "Darling," she said altogether too precisely, "I've never lost a penny of our money." "How do you know?" asked Tony, a bit smugly. "Because," said Leah, just as smugly, "I can account for every dime you've ever given me." "Ha!" said Tony. "Let's see you!" So Leah got a pencil and paper and sat down and figured out her expenditures, to the last penny. "Well," said Tony, "that doesn't mean you won't lose some if you continue to be careless. After it's gone well, you've heard the crack about locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen." "I've heard," said Leah icily, "a lot of cracks." SUDDENLY it occurred to Tony that this was their first major crisis. Somehow he'd have to break Leah of her habit without a quarrel. quar-rel. It was the next Saturday noon when he came home from work that Tony discovered three ones and a two-dollar bill on the bureau where it had been absently dropped by Leah while she rescued the roast Tony and Leah Cranston were harmoniously united. The neighbors neigh-bors would have been horrified if they thought there was trouble between them. from burning. Furtively Tonj scooped up the money and stuck il in his pants pocket. Sooner or latei Leah would discover it was missing She'd become concerned. She'd asi him to help hunt. He'd make a pretense pre-tense of hunting and then pretend to find the money where it hae blown into the bathroom. That afternoon Tony went playing golf. All the while he was gone, while he was in the locker room and on the course and later in the showers, he kept thinking of Leah hunting for the missing money. He came home an hour earliei than he had planned. The momen' he saw Leah's face he knew she had discovered the loss. "Darling, I laid some money o: the bureau. Have you seen it?" "It must have blown off," saic Tony. "Boy. I hope we can find it.' His face wore a look of grave con cern as he began hunting. "V can't afford to lose a cent," he kep saying. Tony waited until Leah looked a; though she were on the point a bursting into tears, rememberin) she had been saving for a new ha and knowing she couldn't have i unless they found the money. Thei he ambled into the bathroom, and chuckling to himself, reached inn his pocket. A startled look came to his face He reached into his other pockets They were all empty. |