HOUSE AND GARDEN 
November, 
I 9 I 3 
engine, generator and accumulator. The second price includes 
interior or concealed wiring, your present fixtures, and instal¬ 
lation of generator, engine and accumulators. The third price 
includes all that the second one does, nine additional fixtures, six 
electric fans, a motor pump to your water supply, to take the 
place of your windmill, a motor with power sufficient to drive 
a churn, a saw or a silage cutter, and also includes steel conduit 
wires for lamps in garage, milk house, wood shed and your 
chicken houses, and a switch panel with provision for connections 
to charge an electric automobile. 
“As I told you before, there are plenty of people who will do 
it much cheaper. But you don’t want undersized accumulators 
and generator for a plant like this, and it’ll pay you better in the 
end to get them large enough to have a reserve than to buy an 
outfit just up to the capacity of your lights and motors and have 
to run the generator all the time.” 
It was on this basis that it was arranged. Mrs. Spence was 
duly invited for ten days to the city, the children were sworn to 
a delighted secrecy, and the workmen arrived “ready to tear the 
place to pieces,” as Mr. Spence ruefully confided to Jack. But 
the concealed wiring was put in place with only the removal of 
a few floor boards, and 
Larry neglected his 
chickens to watch the 
men “fishing” their wires 
through the walls; the 
“muss” was surprisingly 
small. 
A carpenter built a 
small outhouse to hold 
the generator engine 
and accumulators, and 
the pump was duly con¬ 
nected with the well. A 
small circular saw was 
bought, to Jack’s great 
delight and Larry’s 
pleased anticipation, until 
he was forbidden to 
touch the thing or even 
to go near it. The hand 
churn which had proved 
too much for the maids’ 
strength, and which Jack 
had grudgingly turned at 
infrequent intervals, was 
connected to the “motor- 
of-all-work,” as Dorry dubbed it, and a washing machine similarly 
arranged brought pleased smiles to the faces of the domestics. 
But the expression on Eliza’s face when Mr. Spence came 
home one evening with an electric vacuum cleaner was, as he 
said afterwards, worth the price twice over. 
“Shure an Oi’ll hov a bonfire wid all the brooms, bad cess 
to the back-breaking things,” she cried. “ ’Tis a clane house 
ye’ll be havin’ now, Mishter Spince, wid elictric whind to blow 
the dhirrt out av iverything!” 
And Mrs. Spence was prop¬ 
erly surprised and very happy 
at the changes which had been 
made in her home in her 
absence. 
“Though y o u 
ought not to have 
done it, John!” she 
chided her husband. 
"What will become 
of your savings if 
you spend them so recklessly ?” 
“I’m not spending my sav¬ 
ings, my dear — I'm investing 
them! Don’t you 
know that I can sell 
this place for more 
than a thousand 
dollars more than 
I paid for it, be¬ 
cause of these im¬ 
provements? Of 
course, the investment won’t pay tangible, handle-able money. 
But it will pay in many other ways. You know I count the 
principal gain we have had here in our home in the health and 
strength, the comfort and the happiness, which we have all had. 
It’s more than the money gain. If we had just ’broken even’ on 
the money, and not saved a cent, I’d still think we made a fine 
investment when we bought this home and Good Fairy. And 
this electric plant will add to your comfort, make housekeeping 
easier, and I think will even pay a money profit, in one way.” 
“Blow will it do that?” Mrs. Spence asked, preoccupied and 
experimenting with an 
electric button which 
shut ofif and lit the elec¬ 
trolier in the living-room. 
“Listen then, and I’ll 
tell you. It will save Jack’s 
time on sawing wood — 
it will give us butter, and 
it will make our house 
clean with less expendi¬ 
ture of time, and the 
time saved can be put, on 
Jack’s part at least, on 
the garden next year. 
But there is another sav¬ 
ing which I can’t explain 
just yet!” 
For the surprises were 
not yet finished for Mrs. 
Spence. Her husband 
loved the theatrical, and 
although Larry and 
Dorry nearly exploded 
with news several times 
that evening, and she 
more than once looked at 
her family to see what made them act as if they were sitting over 
a bomb shell, the evening was finished and sleep reigned over the 
household without the secret being told. 
It burst immediately after breakfast the next morning. 
“Mother,” said Mr. Spence, as casually as he could, “Jack is 
busy this morning. I want you to drive me to the station, please.” 
“Why, John! Are you crazy? You know I can’t drive 
the machine.” 
“Yes, but why can’t you?” inquired ber husband. 
“John Spence! How could I ever learn to run a car with all 
those levers and pedals and things? If it was just one lever — 
but there are too many things. Get Dorry to drive you down.” 
“No, I want you to drive me!” 
“But, my dear man, I can’t—I’d he frightened to death — and 
I couldn’t crank it if I weren’t. I’m not strong enough.” 
“Well, come to the door and see if you haven’t made a mis¬ 
take,” he pleaded. 
Bewildered, Mrs. Spence followed him. For a moment she 
looked blankly out on the familiar driveway. Then she gasped 
and gave a cry of delight — for there, rolling up the road, was an 
Instead of being upset by the automobile operating expenses, Mr. Spence felt that whatever gave 
evidence of usage of his car showed that the country place was productive of a better sort of 
living than he enjoyed in the city 
