HOW RICHARD PLANTED A DOLLAR
When vacation time came, Richard went to visit his Uncle Dick on the farm.
He fed the chickens regularly, and he drove the cows and sheep to pasture. Indeed, he worked so hard and helped so much that his uncle promised to pay him.
So one day Uncle Dick handed him a silver dollar. Richard was delighted to think he had earned so much money. He put the dollar first into one pocket, then into another. This seemed to amuse Uncle Dick.
“What are you going to do with your money?” he asked.
“I don’t know exactly,” Richard replied. “What would you do with it, uncle?”
“I think that I should plant it,” said Uncle Dick.
“Plant it!” exclaimed Richard. “Why, will it grow?”
“Yes,” said Uncle Dick, “it will, if it is planted in the right place.”
Just then some one called him away, and he forgot about Richard and his dollar.
But Richard did not forget. The next morning bright and early, he was out digging in the garden.
“What are you going to plant?” asked Uncle Dick when he saw him.
“My dollar,” answered Richard, pulling the money proudly out of his pocket. Then seeing the smile in his uncle’s face he added, “You know you said it would grow, uncle, if I planted it in the right place. Isn’t this the right place?”
“Did you think I meant that pennies would grow on bushes?” said Uncle Dick. “I didn’t mean that, boy. I’m going to drive over to Bernardsville after breakfast. If you will go with me, I will show you the right place to plant a dollar to make it grow.”
Richard hurried with his breakfast because he was greatly excited by the thought of his ride.
As they drove toward the town, every now and then he put his hand in his pocket to see if his dollar was safe.
Finally, they reached Bernardsville, and Uncle Dick drew up before a large stone building. “This is a bank, a place where dollars grow,” he explained. “Come inside with me and, if you wish, we will plant your dollar.”
He led the way to a window over a high counter.
“How do you do, Mr. Cashier?” he said. “This young man is my nephew, and he wishes to plant a dollar so that it may start to grow. Will you please show him the right place to plant it?”
“Indeed I shall be glad to,” said the man behind the window. “If your nephew will hand me his dollar, I will plant it for him.”
Richard gravely pulled the money from his pocket and handed it through the window. The man gave him a card and asked him to write his name.
When Richard returned the card, Mr. Cashier took up a neat little book, wrote Richard’s name on the cover and made a note inside the book, which said that Richard had one dollar in the bank. Then he gave him the book, together with a pretty nickel home-safe, such as savings banks keep for children who save pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and, sometimes, even dollars.
“This is a home-savings bank,” explained Mr. Cashier. “Your dollar which you handed through the window will grow in two ways. We will make it grow by paying you interest. You may make it grow by adding more money to it. You take this littlenickel safe, and put your pennies and other money into it; when you come again to our bank, bring it with you. See, here is the key I shall use for unlocking it. I will add what is in it to the dollar you already have.”
“Don’t we get the key?” asked Richard in a whisper, as other people came up to the window, and he and his uncle passed on.
“No,” answered his uncle. “If we had it, we might be tempted to open the safe and use the money; then your dollar wouldn’t grow.”
“What did Mr. Cashier mean by saying, ‘we will make your money grow?’” asked Richard when they were once more driving toward home.
“He meant that the bank people will pay you three cents for every dollar you let them use for a year.”
“Isn’t that fine!” exclaimed Richard. Then he opened the box that held his pretty home-safe.
“The next time we take this to bank,” he said, “when I shake it, it will jingle.”
“I believe it will!” said Uncle Dick laughing; “and I believe it will make your first dollar grow big.”
And it did; for Richard worked hard and saved almost all of his money. When the cashier opened it with the key the next time Richard and Uncle Dick went to the bank, even he seemed surprised as he counted the money.
“Well, young man,” he said, “I see you know one way to plant a dollar and make it grow.”