While young people are spending most of their time at school or at
play, their fathers and other grown people are usually chiefly
occupied in the business of making a living or "earning money."

[Footnote: Gold and silver and paper and wood are forms of wealth.
Out of wood we make a yardstick or a peck measure with which TO
MEASURE QUANTITIES of cloth or grain. In a similar manner, out of
gold, silver, paper, and other materials, we make money, and for a
similar reason, viz. to MEASURE THE VALUE of wealth. When we speak
of a FIFTY-CENT KNIFE and a TWENTY-FIVE CENT PURSE, we measure the
value of these articles. It would take thousands of DOLLARS to
measure the value of a well-stocked farm.

When we say that a boy earns a dollar, or that a man earns $4.00 a
day, we measure the value of his work or his service. If a man
works for a farmer, he very likely receives his "board and
lodging" in part payment for his services; he makes a direct
exchange of his services for food and shelter. But he also
probably receives in addition an amount of money, because with the
money he can buy clothes and other things that the farmer cannot
give. He takes the money and buys with it these other things that
he needs to supply his wants. Thus money becomes something more
than a measure of wealth or of services; it is also A MEANS OF
EXCHANGING WEALTH OR SERVICES.

These are the two uses of money. Money has value only because of
what it represents in wealth, and wealth is useful because it
enables us to satisfy wants. These things are mentioned because it
is quite important that we should never forget that "money" and
"wealth" are worth working for only because of the "living," or