Summary of Stephen Leacock My Last Dollar

The text is a personal reflection on the relationship between the narrator and their friend Todd, who has owed them a dollar for twelve months. The narrator fears that Todd will never return the dollar, but they will always remember the friendship they shared. Todd borrowed the dollar last April, just as he was about to leave for Bermuda, and the narrator lent it to him. The narrator hardly realized it until it was all over, and he knew that when Todd took the dollar, he meant to pay for it.

Todd returned in three weeks, and the narrator met him at the train station, not because of the dollar but because he esteemed him. They spent the evening together, discussing Bermuda and the American Dollar. The narrator found it difficult to recall the dollar, and he eventually realized that he had completely forgotten it. He asked Todd about his trip cost and whether the American Dollar went at par with the dollar, but he couldn’t bring himself to mention it.

The narrator bears no grudge and adds Todd to the list of men who owe him a dollar and have forgotten it. There are quite a few of them now, but the narrator only wishes that he could forget. The narrator meets Todd frequently, and two nights ago, he mentioned that Poland would never pay her debts.

The narrator has a painful thought that if Todd owes him a dollar and has forgotten it, it is possible that there must be men to whom he owes a dollar he has forgotten. There may be a list of such men, but the more he thinks of it, the less he likes it. He is sure that if he had once forgotten a dollar, he should never pay it on this side of the grave.

If there are such men, the narrator wants them to speak out in reasonable numbers, alphabetically order, and write their names down on paper. He doesn’t count men who may have lent him an odd dollar over a bridge table, but if any man ever lent him a dollar to pay for a taxi when starting for Bermuda, he wants to pay it.

In conclusion, the narrator asks that no reader of the book will leave this copy round where it might be seen by Major Todd of the University Club of Montreal.