If I had been obliged to earn every cent I spent, I should have gone whole-heartedly into the business of making both ends meet, and should have taken up the law or any other respectable occupation--for I then held, and now hold, the belief that a man's first duty is to pull his own weight and to take care of those dependent upon him; and I then believed, and now believe, that the greatest privilege and greatest duty for any man is to be happily married, and that no other form of success or service, for either man or woman, can be wisely accepted as a substitute or alternative.

But it happened that I had been left enough money by my father not to make it necessary for me to think solely of earning bread for myself and my family.

I had enough to get bread.

What I had to do, if I wanted butter and jam, was to provide the butter and jam, but to count their cost as compared with other things.

In other words, I made up my mind that, while I must earn money, I could afford to make earning money the secondary instead of the primary object of my career.