Five amounts can be compared because each is measured in words of proven retention. The Rate recalls a fare of two hundred. The household in Cheap Words holds two hundred and six, shared without a stated division among its two adults and child. The father in The Last Word has two hundred and thirty-nine. The fare before the turn of the year is two hundred and forty; the widow’s husband reaches that amount after audit. At the turn it becomes three hundred.
Moving from two hundred and forty to three hundred raises the requirement by sixty. The father is sixty-one short, because he was already one below the earlier fare. These are differences in the same unit. They do not convert money paid to record an announcement into retained vocabulary. Teaching a word, keeping it, having it audited and paying someone to read remain different operations.