the box

[Raymond Richard]

There was once a man and woman who had been married for more than 60
years.
They had shared everything. They had talked about everything.

They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old
woman
had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her
husband
never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day
the
little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not
recover.
In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the
shoe
box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that
he
should know what was in the box.

When he opened it, he found two crocheted doilies and a stack of money
totaling $25,000. He asked her about the contents. "When we were to be
married," she said, "my grandmother told me the secret of a happy
marriage
was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I
should
just keep quiet and crochet a doily."

The little old man was so moved, he had to fight back tears. Only two
precious doilies were in the box. She had only been angry with him two
times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with
happiness.

"Honey," he said, "that explains the doilies, but what about all of this
money? Where did it come from?"

"Oh," she said, "that's the money I made from selling the doilies."