BE YE CONTENT WITH LITTLE. 61 



piece of clothing, except that which nature gives 

 unto them. 



Of every hundred articles which we possess 

 in our homes we could throw away ninety-four 

 and live more contented, more happy, less en- 

 cumbered lives. Diogenes had only his tub; 

 Thoreau at Walden his three or four pieces of 

 furniture. A lady once offered the latter a 

 mat, but he "had no room to spare within the 

 house nor time to spare within or without to 

 shake it." He therefore declined it preferring 

 to wipe his feet on the sod before his door. A 

 few chairs, a bed or two, a table, a book shelf, 

 a stove, what else of furniture does a person 

 need? What more can a millionaire possess 

 that is really necessary? Better, far better, to 

 have little and be independent than to have 

 much and serve a master for a lifetime. Like 

 Thoreau "I would rather sit on a pumpkin and 

 have it all to myself than to be crowded on a 

 velvet cushion." 



It is this insane desire to own things like 

 those of our neighbors, pianos, automobiles, ma- 

 hogany furniture, oil paintings, diamonds, 

 china, silverware and a hundred other luxuries, 

 that brings discontent, sorrow, shortened lives, 

 despair, into our homes. It is this that causes 

 the average man who is a servant or city slave 

 to spend every cent as fast or faster than it 



