We Always Pay For That "Need" September 1917

I have been very much impressed by a sentence

I read in an advertisement of farm machinery,

and here it is for you to think about:

"The minute we need a thing, we begin

paying for it whether we buy it or not."

That is true of farm machinery on the face of it.

If a farm tool is actually needed, it will,

without question, have to be bought in time;

and the farmer begins paying for it at once

in loss of time or waste or damage

resulting from not having it.

He might even, if buying
 was put off long enough,

pay the whole price of the machine

and still not have it.

A dentist once said to me,

"I don't care whether people come to me

when they should or put off coming as long

as they possibly can. I know they'll come in

time, and the longer they put it off 
the bigger my bill will be when they do come."

We begin to pay the dentist
 when our teeth first need attention
 whether they have that attention or not.

"I can't afford to build a machine shed this year," 
said farmer Jones,

and so his machinery stood out 
in the weather to rot and rust.

The next year he had to spend
 so much for repairs and new

machines that he was less able
 than before to build the shed.

He is paying for that protection
 for his machinery, 
but he may never have it.

We think we cannot afford
 to give children the proper schooling.

"Besides, their help
 is needed on the farm," we say.

We shall pay for that education
 which we do not give them.

Oh, we shall pay for it!

When we see our children
 inefficient and handicapped,

perhaps through life,
 for the lack of the knowledge they

should have gained in their youth,
 we shall, if in no

other way, pay in our hurt pride
 and our regret that we

did not give them a fair chance,
 though quite likely

we shall pay in money too.

The children, more's the pity,
 must pay also.

Mr. Colton's work kept him outdoors
 in all kinds of weather, and one autumn
 he did not buy the warm clothing he needed.

 He said he could not afford to do so and would

make an old overcoat last through.
 The old coat outlasted him,

for he took a chill from exposure 
and died of pneumonia.

So he paid with his life
 for a coat he never had, and his

widow paid the bills 
which amounted to a great deal

more than the cost of an overcoat.

Instances multiply as one looks for them.

We certainly do begin paying for a thing when we

actually need it, whether we buy it or not;

but this is no plea for careless buying as it is

just as great a mistake to buy what we do not need

as it is not to buy what we should.

In the one case we pay before,
 and in the other,

we usually keep paying
 after the real purchase.

One thing always leads to another
 and even to two or three,

 and it requires good business judgment
 to buy the right thing at the right time.

"Forever Red"

Charles Freitag

"We Always Pay For The "Need"

Written by Laura Ingalls Wilder

From the book, "Little House In The Ozarks"

A Laura Ingalls Wilder Sampler

The Rediscovered Writings

Edited by Stephen W. Hines

(1991)