When Mr. Simpkins gets a raise, his married friend, Jones, advises him to "hold out" a five or ten-spot, and Simpkins is surprised to find that that seems to be the general practice among the married men in his office. Guiltily putting his hold-out in his hat-band, Simpkins goes home and nearly has heart disease when his wife, after relieving him of his regular salary, insists on taking his hat. However, he gets away with it safely and hides the money in a vase on the mantel shelf. That night he has a slight chill and his wife sleepily tells him the quinine pills are in the medicine chest. After taking two he sees the fatal skull and crossbones on the box, and yelling "I've taken poison. Help, I'm dying." he runs into his room and leaps on the bed writhing in agony. Suddenly he gasps, "I'm afraid it's too late, I've lost all feeling in my arms." But his wife shrieks, "That's my arm you're pinching." Simpkins pathetically confesses the truth of his "hold-outs," and is astonished to learn his wife has also been saving "hold-outs." When the doctor arrives and announces he only took quinine and that the pills evidently got in the wrong box, all ends in supreme joy and relief.