"When Our Skip Comes In"

THE LITTLE GIRL rested her elbows on the table, cupped her chin in her hands and said, "Mommy, do we have a ship?"

Peg Grayson looked up from the hem she was stitching and said, "Why, Gloria! What an odd question! Why do you ask that?"

"Well, yesterday when you and Daddy were talking about why we couldn't go to the lake this summer, Daddy said that maybe we'd all go on a long trip when our ship comes in, and..."

Peg Grayson laughed. "Oh, that! It's just something people say, Gloria. It means—well, that they hope good fortune will come to them some day. Not a real, actual ship, but..." She went on to explain as well as she could.

No, it was not a real, actual ship, Peg thought after Gloria had left her to her sewing. But wouldn't it be nice if.... She frowned at the hem she was turning. With the cost of living what it was, she and Ben would be lucky if they ever managed to do anything extravagant. And then, on top of it all, Jack Wilson had been trying to get Ben to take out some more life insurance, of all things.

That, she decided, was not the way for a husband to spend his money. After all, if worse did come to worst, she could always get a job doing something. House-cleaning, even. To Peg, death and insurance went hand in hand—and she preferred not to think of either.

That evening Jack Wilson stopped in to talk with Ben and Peg Grayson about the life insurance again, and during the discussion Peg mentioned their daughter's question about their "ship." Both men laughed. "It would be wonderful, though," Peg said, "to discover some day that suddenly we were able to go on a nice long cruise or something like that...."

Jack Wilson smiled. "Look, folks-that's exactly the point I've been trying to make! Because even though the primary purpose of this insurance is to protect Peg and Gloria, it can also build up into a nice-sized cash fund for your later years."

Peg suddenly found herself listening with greater interest.

It's almost thirty years since that discussion took place, and a great many things have happened since. Gloria, the "little girl," is married now and has two children of her own—a boy, six, and a girl, three. Her parents, Peg and Ben Grayson, have moved to a cottage in a little seaside town, where they are living quietly and peacefully on income from Ben's New York Life insurance policies. They have a small boat which they keep anchored in a nearby cove, and they go fishing quite a lot.

You wouldn't call the boat a ship, exactly. But it did come in!

FEW OCCUPATIONS offer a man so much inthe way of personal reward as life underwriting. Many New York Life agents arebuilding very substantial futures for themselves by helping others plan ahead fortheirs. If you would like to know moreabout a life insurance career, talk it overwith the New York Life manager in yourcommunity—or write to the Home Officeat the address below.

NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY 51 Madison Avenue, New York 10, N. Y.

Naturally, names used in this story are fictitious.