The Cheerful Smugglers

The Cheerful Smugglers

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The Cheerful Smugglers by Ellis Parker Butler

Published:

1907

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The Cheerful Smugglers

By

3
(1 Review)
More of this popular author's fun, a bundle of absurd complications and ridiculous situations arising from a young couple's scheme to provide funds for their year-old son's education. It is a veritable Stocktonian story, as delightfully absurd in theme as it is realistic in characterization.

Book Excerpt

Fenelby. "I would never think of buying a waist for one dollar and ninety-eight cents. I try to be economical, Tom, but you know you always like me to look well, and those cheap waists do not look well, and they are really dearer in the long run, because they get out of shape in a few days, and never wear well, anyway. The very cheapest waist I have bought for years was that one I got for three dollars and forty-seven cents, and I could have done much better if I had bought the goods and made it up myself."

"Ah--yes," said Mr. Fenelby, hesitatingly. "I am afraid you did not just catch my meaning, Laura. It does not make any difference whether the waist costs one dollar and ninety-eight cents or twelve dollars and sixty-three cents. I mean that it would be a hard job to figure sixteen and three-quarters per cent. of it. Suppose we leave the duty at ten per cent. on necessities, and make it thirty per cent. on luxuries? That ought to make it come out about two hundred and fifty dollars a year, and if it

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In this metaphorically humorous story, Mr. and Mrs. Fenelby decide to save money for their infant's education by declaring their household a commonwealth and charging themselves a tariff on all imports. It doesn't, however, quite work out the way they expect. The idea is funny but it's not enough to carry the whole length of the tale.