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+Project Gutenberg's Jerry's Charge Account, by Hazel Hutchins Wilson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Jerry's Charge Account
+
+Author: Hazel Hutchins Wilson
+
+Illustrator: Charles Geer
+
+Release Date: November 26, 2008 [EBook #27211]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JERRY'S CHARGE ACCOUNT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Diane Monico, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+JERRY'S
+
+CHARGE
+
+ACCOUNT
+
+by Hazel Wilson
+
+
+Jerry Martin asked for it. If the candy in Mr. Bartlett's store hadn't
+looked so good to him, he wouldn't have started the charge account and
+he would have escaped all that worry and trouble.
+
+The worst thing about it was that it was sort of fun, too. It was fun
+keeping his twin sister Cathy guessing, fun trying to keep his secret
+from the family, especially his little brother Andy.
+
+So Jerry kept getting deeper and deeper into his predicament, like a
+man in quicksand. The plain fact was, Jerry's father didn't approve of
+charge accounts, and Jerry wasn't likely to change his mind for him,
+candy or no candy. Then, when somebody broke into Mr. Bullfinch's
+house next door, the trouble became serious.
+
+There is laughter and suspense, and a hidden lesson in this story of
+an impulsive boy and his true-to-life family.
+
+
+Illustrated by
+Charles Geer
+
+
+
+
+_BOOKS BY HAZEL WILSON_
+
+THE SURPRISE OF THEIR LIVES
+
+TALL SHIPS
+
+THE RED DORY
+
+JERRY'S CHARGE ACCOUNT
+
+
+
+
+Jerry's
+Charge
+Account
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+JERRY'S
+CHARGE
+ACCOUNT
+
+by Hazel Wilson
+
+with illustrations by Charles Geer
+
+LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY
+
+BOSTON · TORONTO
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, ©, 1960, BY HAZEL WILSON
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY
+FORM WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER, EXCEPT BY A
+REVIEWER WHO MAY QUOTE BRIEF PASSAGES IN A REVIEW TO BE PRINTED IN A
+MAGAZINE OR NEWSPAPER.
+
+LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NO. 60-5877
+
+FOURTH PRINTING
+
+Published simultaneously in Canada by Little, Brown & Company (Canada)
+Limited
+
+PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Project Gutenberg was not able to find a U. S.
+copyright renewal.]
+
+
+
+
+This book is affectionately dedicated to
+Gregory and Kevin
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+ 1  Charge It, Please                      3
+
+ 2  Change for a Ten-Dollar Bill          18
+
+ 3  P. T. A. Meeting                      29
+
+ 4  No Safe Hiding Place                  44
+
+ 5  New Neighbors                         56
+
+ 6  "The Stars and Stripes Forever"       66
+
+ 7  Working on Andy                       81
+
+ 8  The Auction                           93
+
+ 9  As Good as a Watchdog                107
+
+10  May Day                              125
+
+11  Welcome Home!                        138
+
+
+
+
+Jerry's
+
+Charge
+
+Account
+
+
+
+
+1
+
+Charge It, Please
+
+
+Jerry tried to be quiet, but he bumped into the one chair in the
+kitchen on his way to the kitchen cupboard. And it was not his fault
+that the cream pitcher fell when he took the sugarbowl from the shelf.
+Jerry made a quick and nice southpaw catch. Pretty good, he thought,
+for a right-hander. He hadn't been able to use his right because it
+was holding the sugarbowl. He had dumped the sugar into a cereal dish
+and was busily pouring salt into the sugarbowl when his mother entered
+the kitchen.
+
+"What on earth are you doing up so early on Saturday?" Mrs. Martin
+asked sleepily. "It's only half-past six."
+
+Jerry's blue eyes begged his mother to share a joke with him. "I woke
+up and remembered it's April Fools' Day," he said and chuckled. "Can't
+you just see Dad's face when he tastes his coffee with two spoonfuls
+of salt in it instead of sugar?"
+
+"No, Jerry," said his mother. "No. It wouldn't be at all funny to
+spoil your father's morning coffee. It would be tragic. Put the salt
+back, rinse out the sugarbowl, and refill it with sugar. And no more
+April-fooling with your father's breakfast."
+
+"Aw, I never can have any fun around here," Jerry complained. Salt
+spilled on the floor when he poured it from the sugarbowl back into
+the spout of the salt box.
+
+"Sweep it up," ordered his mother, and Jerry had to get out the brush
+and dustpan.
+
+When he went to the sink to rinse the sugarbowl, Jerry turned on the
+hot water so hard that he had to draw his hand back quickly or it
+would have been scalded. The sugarbowl fell in the sink and broke.
+
+"Oh, dear! I need cast-iron dishes instead of china if you're to
+handle them," scolded Mrs. Martin.
+
+"It just slipped out of my hands. I can mend it. That new glue I
+bought last week will mend china, glass, wood--anything. It says so on
+the tube."
+
+Jerry looked so sorry for having broken the sugarbowl that his mother
+stopped being cross. "It was cracked anyway," she said consolingly.
+"Now go get dressed. As long as you're up you may as well stay up.
+Maybe I can get a little work out of you since you've got such an
+early start on the day."
+
+Jerry groaned. What a dreary word--work! Just hearing it made him feel
+tired.
+
+"I'll have pancakes ready in fifteen minutes," said his mother
+brightly. "With real maple syrup," she added.
+
+Jerry could tell that she was tempting his appetite so he would not be
+tempted to go back to bed again. He did not mind. He was wide awake.
+It would be a novelty to have breakfast so early on a Saturday. Almost
+an April Fool joke on his mother.
+
+"And to think that last Saturday I could hardly get you out of bed at
+ten," said his mother as he left the kitchen.
+
+At a little before nine Jerry had a broom in his hand. His orders were
+to sweep off the front steps. He went at it in a very leisurely
+manner. The sooner he finished the sooner his mother might give him
+some other chore to do. Even though Laura, the pleasant
+three-times-a-week maid, did most of the cleaning, Mrs. Martin
+believed her children should have a few household chores. Cathy,
+Jerry's twin sister, had to do the breakfast dishes on Saturdays, and
+even five-year-old Andy, the youngest member of the Martin family, was
+supposed to empty the wastebaskets.
+
+Jerry's lazy broom finished the top step and began on the second. Then
+it occurred to him that it had been some time since he had
+investigated what was under the steps. He put down his broom while he
+knelt and applied one eye to one of the holes bored in the steps. The
+hole was big enough so if somebody dropped a dime just right it would
+go through. No dimes down there today.
+
+As Jerry got to his feet he looked with approval at the big white
+clapboarded house where he lived. The morning sun made the small-paned
+windows shine. The Martin house was on the very edge of northwest
+Washington, D. C. It had been one of the original farmhouses when
+that part of Washington had been country, not city. Now there were
+houses all around, and it had been remodeled long before the Martins
+had bought it. Jerry's father and mother were proud of the old
+floorboards and wide fireplaces. Jerry especially liked the house
+because it had an attic and a big garage that had been a barn.
+
+As he picked up his broom again, his twin sister came to the door to
+shake a dustcloth. Also, he was sure, to check up on what he was
+doing.
+
+"Cathy!" cried Jerry. "There's a great big spider crawling up your
+left leg."
+
+Cathy did not let a yip out of her. "You can't April-fool me that
+easy," she said in a superior-sounding way that irritated Jerry.
+
+Lately he and his twin often irritated each other. For one thing Cathy
+had recently developed an intense interest in how she looked, which
+seemed silly to Jerry.
+
+"Better wipe that black off your left cheek," he said, and laughed
+when Cathy raised her hand to her cheek. "April Fool! Got you that
+time," he exulted.
+
+"Think you're smart, don't you?" grumbled Cathy. "Half the time you
+don't even notice it when your face is dirty. To say nothing of your
+ears."
+
+Jerry swushed dirt off a step and changed the subject. "Have you
+fooled anybody yet this morning?" he asked.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Just Andy. I asked him if he knew that Bibsy had grown another head
+during the night, and he almost cried when he found I was
+April-fooling him. He said he had always wanted a two-headed cat. Then
+when I asked him if he had seen the alligator under the dining room
+table, he wouldn't look. He just said, 'What's a nalligator?' I told
+him it was like Mummy's handbag only much, much bigger, and he wants
+to see a real one. Mummy says we must take him to the zoo someday
+soon. But I can't remember seeing an alligator there, can you?"
+
+Cathy tossed her head, giving her pony tail a little exercise.
+
+"Too bad you didn't say seal instead of alligator. There _are_ seals
+at the zoo. Say, I wouldn't mind going to the zoo this forenoon. Even
+if we have to take Andy. Want to?"
+
+"Nope. Mummy's taking me to town to buy a new dress for Easter."
+Cathy's eyes were bright with expectation.
+
+It was beyond Jerry why Cathy should be pleased to waste good playing
+time in town buying a dress. She didn't used to be that way. She used
+to complain bitterly about having to change from blue jeans into a
+dress. She still liked wearing jeans, yet there came a shine in her
+eyes at even the mention of buying a new dress. Mummy said that
+eleven-going-on-twelve was getting to be a young lady. "Rats!" thought
+Jerry. It was silly for Cathy to begin to be young-lady-like when she
+could throw a baseball just about as well as a boy and sometimes
+better.
+
+"Jerry!" called his mother from a front window. "I want you to run to
+the store for me. Right away."
+
+"Can't Cathy go?" Jerry really did not mind running (though he usually
+walked or rode his bike to the store) but it was a matter of principle
+with him to make a try at getting out of work.
+
+"I have other things for Cathy to do," said Mrs. Martin and shut the
+window.
+
+There were two steps still unswept but Jerry left them untouched by
+his lazy broom. After all, how could he be expected to do two things
+at once? He wished, not for the first time, that his mother would do
+her grocery shopping at the supermarket, which was far enough away so
+she would have to take the car. Instead, she mostly traded at
+Bartlett's, a small old-fashioned store three blocks from where the
+Martin family lived.
+
+"There aren't many small grocery stores left and since we have one
+right in the neighborhood I like to patronize it," Jerry had heard his
+mother say. She liked stores where the owner came to wait on you. But
+Jerry suspected that one reason she traded at Bartlett's was because
+she thought it was good for a boy to run errands.
+
+Going to the store was Jerry's chief chore. "Just because her
+grandfather had to chop wood and milk cows before breakfast when he
+was a boy, she thinks she should keep _me_ busy," he grumbled to
+himself as he went in the house. "Why do I have to go to the store?
+Bartlett delivers. Why can't she telephone her order and have it
+delivered?"
+
+He knew that the answer to that was more than his mother's desire to
+keep him busy. It was partly because she did not like to plan meals
+ahead. A brisk cold day might make her feel like having pork chops and
+hot applesauce for dinner. Or for a warm day, a platter of cold cuts
+and deviled eggs.
+
+"It's just the day for calves' liver and bacon," she might say when
+Jerry got home from school in the afternoon. And she would send him to
+the store for a pound and a half of fresh calves' liver cut thin, "the
+way Mr. Bartlett knows I like it." A meal, his mother thought, should
+match her mood or the weather. She kept a few frozen vegetables on
+hand in case of need, but she much preferred fresh vegetables, freshly
+cut steaks and chops--fresh almost anything which could be bought
+fresh.
+
+"I know it's a frozen food age but I still prefer my meat and
+vegetables fresh," Mrs. Martin often said. That meant a lot of trips
+to the store. Too many, Jerry thought. Especially on Saturdays, when
+she needed a lot of things.
+
+His mother was in the kitchen mixing dough for doughnuts. Jerry was
+glad she made doughnuts instead of buying bakery ones. How good
+doughnuts tasted hot out of the fat! He wished a few of them were done
+so he could have two or three to eat on his way to the store.
+
+"Want me to fry 'em for you and then go to the store?" he offered.
+
+"No. I need a carton of sour cream right away for my chocolate cake.
+And, let me see--five pounds of Idaho potatoes, two pounds of ground
+round steak--I feel like having meat loaf tonight--and two acorn
+squash, an avocado, a dozen oranges, and one loaf of white bread and
+one of whole wheat. Oh, and I've already telephoned and told Mr.
+Bartlett that you would be in to pick up a leg of lamb. He has spring
+lamb just in. You'll have to take your cart. There'll be too much for
+you to carry in your bicycle basket."
+
+Jerry had felt lately that he was too old to be dragging home a cart
+filled with groceries. "How long will it be before Andy can take that
+old cart to the store? He can have it to keep any old time he'll take
+it to the store after groceries."
+
+"You've only had it a year. Said you would be sure to use it for
+years. And you know Andy isn't nearly old enough to take a big cart
+out of the yard. Now run along. And don't stop to play on the way
+home."
+
+Jerry got his cart out of the garage. The wheels squeaked but that
+didn't bother him. He met a couple of boys in his grade at school on
+his way to the store and arranged for baseball later.
+
+Bartlett's store was on a street zoned only for houses, yet because
+the store had been there before the zoning law was passed it had been
+allowed to remain. The present proprietor was the third generation of
+Bartletts who had sold groceries there. He was a stout, pink-faced
+man, quite bald in front. Jerry said that Mr. Bartlett's forehead
+went way to the back of his head. When Jerry went in the store, Mr.
+Bartlett was waiting on a tall woman with a blue scarf over her head,
+and Bill, the clerk who put up orders, was tossing groceries into
+cartons, each carton for a customer.
+
+Jerry had to wait while the woman with the blue scarf decided what she
+would have for Sunday dinner. It seemed to take her a long time to
+make up her mind. After trying without much success to engage Bill in
+conversation, Jerry stood in front of the candy showcase next to the
+cash register and wished he had money with him besides the ten-dollar
+bill his mother had given him to pay for the groceries.
+
+My, but the candy looked yummy! There were glass trays of round mints,
+pink, white, green, and yellow. And caramels, chocolate-covered nuts,
+coconut bonbons, chocolate nougats--nothing there Jerry didn't like.
+He looked at the candy yearningly.
+
+Now the lady had decided on a sirloin steak, thank goodness. Another
+customer came in but Jerry would be next to be waited on. He would
+speak right up and say he was next if Mr. Bartlett started to wait on
+somebody else first, he decided.
+
+The lady wearing the blue scarf reached into her handbag and got out
+her billfold. "I want to pay my March grocery bill," she said. She
+stood beside Jerry near the cash register while Mr. Bartlett was
+behind the counter giving her change.
+
+"Don't go off without your little bonus," said Mr. Bartlett. "My daddy
+and my granddaddy before him always gave folks a little bonus when
+they paid their bills."
+
+Jerry saw Mr. Bartlett get out a half-pound pasteboard box. Saw him
+reach in the showcase and bring out enough candy to fill two rows in
+the box. Jerry had heard that Mr. Bartlett gave candy to charge
+customers when they paid their bills, but he had never before been in
+the store and seen it happen. The sight saddened him. For he knew that
+never for him would Mr. Bartlett fill a half-pound box of candy as a
+gift. The Martin family never charged groceries. They never charged
+anything. Mr. Martin believed in paying cash for everything. Even for
+a new car. He was funny that way. Jerry had never much minded until
+this minute when he saw a charge customer rewarded for being a charge
+customer.
+
+"Wish we had a charge account. I wouldn't have to worry about losing
+money on the way home, if we did," thought Jerry, remembering the
+tendency of loose change to fall out of his pocket when he jumped over
+hedges. "Besides, Mr. Bartlett must want people to have charge
+accounts or he wouldn't give them a bonus when they pay their bills.
+Stands to reason. He likes to have folks charge their groceries
+instead of paying cash, so a charge account must be a good thing. Wish
+my father thought so. If he were here and saw Mr. Bartlett hand over
+that free candy, he'd be bound to see it pays to charge your
+groceries."
+
+"Now, young man, what can I do for you?" asked Mr. Bartlett. Jerry had
+been thinking so hard about the advantages of having a charge account
+that he had hard work remembering what his mother had sent him to the
+store for. But he managed to recollect all but the avocado. Jerry
+didn't like avocados so it was easy for him to forget that. It was
+while Mr. Bartlett was counting out a dozen oranges that Jerry had
+what he considered a very bright idea. There was a way he could
+convince his father that Bartlett's store was the one place where it
+didn't pay to pay cash.
+
+"It won't be dishonest," Jerry argued to himself. "I won't be getting
+a cent out of it. Only a box of candy at the end of the month. And if
+we eat an awful lot and the bill is nice and big for April, maybe Mr.
+Bartlett will give me a pound box of candy instead of a half pound."
+
+The plan that had popped into Jerry's mind was this--he would not pay
+for groceries for the month of April but charge them. He would keep in
+a safe place the money his mother gave him to pay for them. And the
+first day of May he would come in with it and pay the bill and be
+given a box of candy.
+
+"When I take the candy home and pass the box to Dad, he'll see it's a
+good thing to charge our groceries," thought Jerry. The scene was so
+vivid in his mind that he could almost see his father taking a
+chocolate-covered almond.
+
+"I said that will be eight dollars and twenty-one cents," said Mr.
+Bartlett, a bit impatiently.
+
+Jerry reached in his pocket and got out his mother's coin purse. He
+preferred carrying money loose in his pocket but she had said he could
+risk losing his own money that way, not hers. It was while he was
+opening the purse that he suddenly decided to try out his bright idea.
+
+"Charge it, please," he said huskily.
+
+"You folks opening a charge account?" asked Mr. Bartlett.
+
+"Isn't that all right with you?"
+
+"Sure. Sure. You've been trading with me for years. And your father's
+credit is good as gold, which is more than I can say for some." Mr.
+Bartlett made out a slip, which he put in the bag of groceries.
+
+"He knows me and can tell I'm honest," thought Jerry happily, as he
+put the heavy bag of groceries in his cart. The grocery slip he took
+out of the bag and put in his pocket. "I must remember to save all the
+slips," he thought.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jerry was almost home when he remembered that his ten-dollar bill was
+still unbroken. And that he had to have change to give his mother
+before he could put the eight dollars and twenty-one cents the
+groceries cost in a safe hiding place. It was Mr. Bartlett's money,
+Jerry thought. Jerry would just be keeping the money for him until a
+month was up.
+
+Jerry was reluctant to go back to Bartlett's store and ask to have his
+bill changed. He was sure Mr. Bartlett would think it odd, after he
+had charged the groceries.
+
+"I'll have to walk way down to the shopping center," thought Jerry.
+Thinking about all the streets he would have to cross, with the
+trouble of getting the heavy cart up and down the curbs, Jerry was not
+so sure that starting a charge account had been such a good idea after
+all. He had a feeling that in a way he might have played sort of an
+April Fool joke on himself. But it was too late now to undo what he
+had done. He would feel like a ninny going back and telling Mr.
+Bartlett that he had decided to pay cash, that he had changed his mind
+about opening a charge account for the Martin family.
+
+"I'll get my bill changed at the A & P," Jerry decided. And went so
+fast in that direction that the bag holding the potatoes fell out of
+the cart and broke and Jerry lost two of them down a sewer. After that
+he went more slowly, though he found it hard to make the heavy cart go
+downhill slowly. It made his arms ache holding it back.
+
+
+
+
+2
+
+Change for a Ten-Dollar Bill
+
+
+Having to drag a heavy cart with a big bag of groceries in it nearly a
+mile to the shopping center became considerable of a chore even before
+Jerry was halfway there.
+
+"Lemme see," he thought as he bumped the cart down a curb. "I know I
+have to put away eight dollars and twenty-one cents for Mr. Bartlett.
+How much is that from ten dollars? That's the right change for Mummy."
+
+Jerry had a pained look on his face as he tried to do the subtraction
+in his head. He was never any good in mental arithmetic. Give him a
+pencil in his hand and he could do pretty well at figuring. But his
+mind seemed to go blank when he had to carry and all that in his head.
+He reached in all his pockets but did not have a pencil. And he knew
+he had to ask for the right change.
+
+Just then Jerry saw Carl Weston coming up the street. He was a
+classmate of Jerry's in the sixth grade. He wore thick-lensed glasses
+and was quite a brain. He'd be almost sure to have a pencil or a
+ballpoint pen. But Jerry asked him and he didn't, so Jerry gave him a
+line about being a whiz at arithmetic and said he bet Carl could say
+right off how much money you'd have left if you subtracted eight
+dollars and twenty-one cents from ten dollars.
+
+For a few seconds Jerry saw a human adding-machine at work. Then Carl
+said, "One dollar and seventy-nine cents, of course." He didn't add
+"Stupid," but he looked as if that were what he was thinking. Jerry
+didn't care. He knew a lot of important things Carl didn't know, such
+as baseball averages and who were the home-run kings for the past five
+years.
+
+"Thanks, Carl. See you." And Jerry hurried off before Carl could ask
+just why he wanted to know the answer to that particular sum in
+subtraction. "One dollar and seventy-nine cents," Jerry kept saying to
+himself so he wouldn't forget.
+
+There were long lines of shoppers at the checking-out counters at the
+A & P. Jerry had left his cart outside the store, thinking it not
+tactful to bring in a big bag of groceries he had bought in another
+store. He took his place in what he thought was the shortest line.
+Some woman had forgotten to have her bag of bananas weighed and that
+held up the line. The next woman wanted to cash a check and that had
+to be okayed by the manager. Jerry fidgeted. He saw that the woman
+ahead of the woman ahead of him had a cart so piled with groceries
+that she must be feeding a boardinghouse, or an awfully big family.
+
+It was all of fifteen minutes, but seemed twice as long, before Jerry
+reached the clerk behind the counter and asked for change.
+
+"Sorry, but I'm short of change," said the young man behind the
+counter.
+
+A wave of discouragement swept over Jerry. Perhaps storekeepers
+wouldn't give change to anybody who wasn't buying anything. But he had
+to get his ten-dollar bill changed. He didn't have the heart to wait
+in another line to see if another clerk might give him change. He went
+out. He would have to try another store.
+
+He opened the door of the florist shop and backed out. The woman in
+charge there looked just too elegant to approach. At the hardware
+store he was told that he could have two fives for a ten if that would
+help him. It wouldn't, so Jerry still had his ten-dollar bill
+unchanged.
+
+Here was the barbershop. One particular barber usually cut Jerry's
+hair. Jerry was glad to find that George was not busy.
+
+"Thought I gave you a haircut less than a week ago," George greeted
+him. "Did you come in to get your head shaved? Be cooler, warm weather
+coming on."
+
+Jerry explained that he was satisfied with the state of his crew cut.
+Rather timidly he asked to have his ten-dollar bill changed, told the
+exact change he had to have.
+
+"Guess I can oblige you, but Saturday's a bad day for change, with the
+banks closed all day," said George. He went to the cash register and
+counted out the change Jerry needed.
+
+"Thank _you_," said Jerry with great heartiness.
+
+Now to get home in a hurry. He went out to get his cart, which he had
+left outside the barbershop. A big red setter dog was pawing the bag
+of groceries. "Red! Get away from there!" Jerry yelled. With horror he
+saw that the dog had the leg of lamb in his strong jaws.
+
+"Drop that, Red!" shouted Jerry. He ran and grabbed the other end of
+the leg of lamb and tried to get it away from the dog.
+
+Red was a good-natured animal who often seemed to forget he was a dog,
+he so much wanted to be one of the boys. He especially enjoyed taking
+part in baseball games. He ran bases and barked as loud as any of the
+players could shout. Last Saturday Jerry might have made a home run if
+Red had not dashed in front of him so Jerry fell over him. Now Red
+thought a tug of war with a leg of lamb was a fine game.
+
+Jerry pulled. The red setter braced his legs and pulled.
+
+"You mean dog! Leggo! Leggo!" screamed Jerry.
+
+The desperation in his voice finally had an effect on Red's tender
+heart. He let go of his end of the leg of lamb so suddenly that Jerry
+sat down hard. The leg of lamb fell in the dirt.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jerry brushed off bits of gravel from his Sunday dinner. Red's teeth
+marks didn't show unless you looked very closely. Jerry wrapped the
+leg of lamb in the torn paper bag. It was a lucky thing he had come
+out of the barbershop before Red had run off with it. "That dog is
+getting to be a nuisance," he thought. But he really liked Red and had
+often wished he were one of the Martin family instead of belonging to
+a neighbor.
+
+It was uphill most of the way home. Jerry got pretty tired of pulling
+his heavy cart. He wished he could think up a way of motorizing it,
+fix it up like sort of a four-wheeled motor scooter. Maybe put an
+engine on the back like an outboard motor. Such speculations helped
+pass the time, but he was tired before he got home.
+
+It was disappointing to find that the doughnuts had been fried and put
+away. And Mrs. Martin, dressed for town, scolded Jerry soundly for
+being over an hour going to the store.
+
+"I had to postpone making my cake," she said sharply, "for if Cathy
+and I are to get any shopping done and get back in time for lunch, we
+have to start. You'll have to look after Andy. Take him with you but
+keep an eye on him if you go out with the boys."
+
+"Other boys don't have to have their little brothers tagging along,"
+complained Jerry.
+
+"Don't try my patience too far or you won't go out at all."
+
+Jerry saw a look in his mother's eyes that made him wary of making
+her any more displeased with him than she already was.
+
+"All right, I'll take him. If Red follows us to the park Andy can play
+with him and keep that big nuisance from trying to play ball with us."
+
+Jerry was relieved when his mother unpacked the groceries and did not
+notice that anything unusual had happened to the leg of lamb.
+
+"Where's my change?" she asked.
+
+Jerry almost got out Mr. Bartlett's eight dollars and twenty-one
+cents. Hastily he switched his hand to another pocket for the one
+dollar and seventy-nine cents due his mother. He handed it over, his
+eyes downcast. For some reason he did not want to meet his mother's
+eye just then. Whenever she looked him straight in the eye, Jerry had
+always found it next to impossible to keep anything from her.
+
+"Thank you for going to the store for me. But honestly, Jerry, you're
+too old for me to have to tell you every time not to stop and play on
+the way home," she said.
+
+Play! So that was what she thought he had been doing. Little did she
+know how little like play it was. Jerry had to stifle the impulse to
+tell her all he had been through in the past hour and a half.
+
+"Saturday's a busy time at the grocery stores," he said.
+
+His mother let that pass for an excuse. She was in a hurry to be off.
+And Jerry could tell that his twin sister was pleased with his being
+stuck with looking after Andy while she was off admiring herself in
+store mirrors.
+
+"Don't let Andy lose his windbreaker," she warned in an almost grownup
+manner. Trying to button her jacket and hold on to her red patent
+leather handbag at the same time, she dropped the bag and its contents
+spilled on the floor.
+
+With horror Jerry saw that Cathy had been carrying a lipstick of shiny
+gold-colored metal. "Don't tell me you've taken to using lipstick! You
+trying to look like a clown?"
+
+"It's just from the dime store. To use if my lips get chapped. Take
+your foot off that, Jerry Martin. Oh, you've bent it," she cried.
+
+"Want me to wipe away your tears?" taunted Jerry. That was his latest
+favorite remark. He said it whether it was appropriate or not, liking
+the sound of it and the reaction it drew from family and playmates.
+Now Cathy tossed her head and glared at him.
+
+"I _was_ sorry that Andy broke your model satellite but now I'm not."
+
+"Who cares?"
+
+"Make Jerry stop being so aggravating," Cathy begged her mother.
+
+"Come on. We haven't time to try to reform your brother this morning.
+Be a good boy, Andy. Mind Jerry. Don't let your little brother out of
+your sight, Jerry."
+
+Jerry was relieved when his mother and sister had gone. It gave him a
+chance to find a good hiding place for Mr. Bartlett's eight dollars
+and twenty-one cents. Somewhere up attic would be the best place, he
+decided.
+
+"You play with your blocks. I have to go up attic for a minute," Jerry
+told Andy.
+
+"I'll go with you."
+
+"No, you don't."
+
+It took several minutes to get Andy so interested in his toys that he
+consented to be left while Jerry went up attic. Then he dashed up two
+flights of stairs. Now where should he hide the money? In the drawer
+of that old chest? No, his mother was forever cleaning out drawers. In
+one of the garment bags in which were hung out-of-season clothes? That
+might do. He would need the hiding place only for the month of
+April--before warm weather. Because it was a cool day it seemed to
+Jerry that it would be ages before anybody needed summer clothes. He
+put Mr. Bartlett's money in one of his mother's shoes, a white one he
+found in the bottom of one of the garment bags.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jerry felt that he had been engaged in quite an enterprise. "And I've
+not gone to all this work just for myself," he argued in his mind as
+he zipped up the garment bag. "I'm doing it for the whole family. For
+I'm not going to hog the candy for myself. Course I may help myself to
+a piece or two when I get it. No, I'll bring the whole box home and
+pass it around," he decided generously. "And if Dad is convinced, and
+that box of free candy should convince him that it _is_ a good thing
+to charge groceries at Bartlett's, we'll go on charging them. Every
+month. At the end of a year I bet we'll have gotten more than five
+pounds of free candy. Oh, boy!"
+
+Small footsteps sounded and there was Andy.
+
+"Downstairs was lonesome," he said plaintively.
+
+"Okay, I'm all through with what I was doing up here. I'll get my bat
+and ball and we'll go out."
+
+"I'll play ball with you."
+
+"Tell you what you can do, Andy. I'll let you hold my catcher's mitt
+when I'm not using it. And I'll throw you a few easy ones. You're old
+enough to begin to learn to play baseball."
+
+Andy looked so pleased that Jerry's heart warmed to him. He decided
+that when Mr. Bartlett presented that box of candy, Andy should have
+the first pick.
+
+"He can have his choice of any piece in the box," thought Jerry
+benevolently. And waited quite patiently while Andy came down the
+stairs slowly all the way like a grownup and not two feet on the same
+step like a baby. Sometimes Jerry did not mind having Andy tag along
+as much as he made out.
+
+
+
+
+3
+
+P. T. A. Meeting
+
+
+"Why did it have to be pleasant all week and then rain on Saturday?"
+thought Jerry unhappily the following Saturday. He watched the rain
+slant against the front windows for a while and then picked up the
+morning paper to reread the comics. "April showers may bring May
+flowers, but it's tough on baseball," he said to himself.
+
+Andy came in the living room. He had a much folded and unfolded sheet
+of paper in his hand. "Help me learn my piece, will you, Jerry? I can
+read pictures but not hard words. But I know most of my piece. Cathy
+teached me."
+
+Andy was to make his first public appearance at the P. T. A. meeting
+Monday evening. His kindergarten class was to perform a short play
+about Goldilocks and the three bears. Once a year the Oakhurst
+elementary school put on a program by the pupils for the parents. This
+year Cathy was to sing in a girls' chorus and Jerry, one of a rhythm
+band, was to shake bells during the playing of "The Stars and Stripes
+Forever" by John Philip Sousa. Andy had an important part on the
+program. He was to speak a poem to introduce the play about
+Goldilocks. Miss Prouty, his teacher, called it the prologue. Andy
+called it his log piece.
+
+Jerry took the grimy piece of paper. "Let's hear it," he told Andy.
+"Shoot."
+
+Andy stood with his legs far apart, his head tilted upward as if he
+were reading his "piece" from the ceiling. His usually merry face
+looked solemn, his dark eyes worried. Hardly above a whisper he
+recited:
+
+    We welcome you, dear parents,
+      And hope you'll like our play.
+    'Twas written by Miss Prouty's class
+      Just for the P. T. A.
+
+"How could your class write a play when you don't even know how to
+write?" asked Jerry.
+
+"I can print all my name," said Andy in his normal voice. "Miss Prouty
+says that part of writing is thinking and saying. So she read
+'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' to us three times. Then our class
+said it to her and she wrote it down. But she wrote my log piece by
+herself."
+
+"You'd better say the first verse again and a lot louder," Jerry
+suggested. "Nobody will hear you if you don't speak good and loud."
+
+So Andy said the first verse again good and loud. He made the phrase
+"Just for the P. T. A." sound like a football yell.
+
+"Good! That ought to wow 'em. Now say the next verse."
+
+Again Andy's eyes sought the ceiling.
+
+    You may have heard the story
+      Of this girl with golden hair,
+    Who lost her way in a dark wood--
+
+Andy could not remember what came next.
+
+"Belonging to a bear," Jerry prompted. "I don't remember that the
+story said anything about Papa Bear owning the woods, but maybe he
+did. Go on, Andy."
+
+Andy could not remember any of the last verse, so Jerry read it to him
+slowly.
+
+    I won't go on with the story,
+      For our play will now portray
+    What happened to little Goldilocks
+      The day she lost her way.
+
+"Say it, Andy," urged Jerry.
+
+Andy pouted. "I don't want to. I hate my log piece," he said fiercely.
+"I wanted to be the great big bear. I wanted to say, 'Who's been
+eating my porridge?' I can talk the loudest. But Ned Brooks is going
+to be the great big bear." Andy's lower lip quivered. He looked ready
+to bawl.
+
+"Want to hear some keen poetry?" asked Jerry, hoping to cheer Andy.
+
+Andy showed no sign of wanting to but Jerry did not wait for
+encouragement. With a lilt of enjoyment in his voice he said a rhyme
+he had learned sometime--he could not remember when or where.
+
+    Gene, Gene--had a machine.
+    Joe, Joe--made it go.
+    Frank, Frank--turned the crank.
+    His mother came out and gave him a spank,
+    And threw him over a sandbank.
+
+The last two lines Jerry said very rapidly, coming out good and strong
+on the word _sandbank_.
+
+Like April weather Andy's stormy face turned sunny. "Say it again," he
+said delightedly.
+
+Jerry obliged.
+
+"Say it again," Andy begged when Jerry had finished the second time.
+
+"Say, what do you think I am, a phonograph record?" asked Jerry. But
+he good-naturedly recited the rhyme a third time.
+
+"I can say it," cried Andy. And he recited the rhyme without
+forgetting a word.
+
+"Say, you can learn like a shot when you really want to," said Jerry
+admiringly.
+
+"I don't think that's a nice poem to teach to Andy," said Cathy, who
+had come in and listened to her small brother.
+
+"I'd like to know why not?" asked Jerry.
+
+"Poetry should be beautiful," said Cathy dreamily. "Like that poem
+Miss Kitteridge read us day before yesterday.
+
+"Life has loveliness to sell," quoted Cathy.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Blah! That stinks," said Jerry. "But I liked it when Miss Kitteridge
+read us 'Casey at the Bat.' That's _good_ poetry."
+
+"Not as good as poetry by Sara Teasdale."
+
+"It is, too."
+
+"It is not."
+
+"There's no law that says that everybody has to like the same kind of
+poetry," said Mrs. Martin from the doorway. "You twins don't have to
+show dispositions to match the weather. Just because it's unpleasant
+you don't need to be. I want you to run to the store, Jerry, and get
+two pounds or a little over of haddock. I had intended to have cold
+roast beef for dinner but it's such a chilly day I think a good New
+England fish chowder will just hit the spot."
+
+"But I went to the store this morning," protested Jerry.
+
+"And you took time enough getting home with them to have grown the
+vegetables and slaughtered the meat."
+
+Jerry looked at the floor. "I'll go," he said in a dull voice as if
+the burden of life was heavy.
+
+With leaden feet Jerry went out to the garage for his bike. He had a
+five-dollar bill in his mother's coin purse and he was worrying about
+how he was going to get it changed. Every time his mother had asked
+him to go to the store all week Jerry had worried about getting the
+right change. This morning had been the worst. He had had to take his
+cart again and that had slowed him up. Then when he had walked in the
+rain all the long way to the shopping centre, George, the barber, had
+not been a bit obliging.
+
+George had been busy when Jerry had come in the barbershop. Nor did he
+look up when Jerry spoke to him, giving him a pleasant "Good morning."
+Of course Jerry had waited until George was not busy before asking him
+for change for a ten. Jerry needed only forty cents to take back to
+his mother this time. George had been very reluctant to change Jerry's
+bill.
+
+"You're getting to be a nuisance, running in to get bills changed,"
+George had complained. But he had given Jerry nine dollars in bills
+and a dollar in change for his ten.
+
+Jerry dreaded to have to ask George for change twice the same day. He
+had never had to do that before. But where else could he get change?
+All the way to the store he worried.
+
+Jerry was the only customer in Bartlett's store. And Mr. Bartlett did
+have some nice haddock. Jerry had hoped he would be out of fish but no
+such luck.
+
+"Nasty day," said Mr. Bartlett, as he weighed the fish.
+
+Jerry agreed. It seemed to him to be a particularly nasty day. He put
+the grocery slip in his pocket and hurried out of the store. Even the
+sight of the candy in the showcase had not lifted his spirits. The
+half pound of candy he might get when he paid the bill at the end of
+the month seemed a small reward for all he was going through to earn
+it. "Only three weeks to go," he told himself, putting the package of
+fish in his bicycle basket. But three weeks seemed a long time.
+
+Maybe it hadn't been a good idea, this charging business. But it was
+no good time to stop now. He would have no candy to present to his
+parents to prove the advantage of charging groceries at Bartlett's.
+No, having begun, Jerry had to see it through.
+
+"Might as well get killed for a sheep as a lamb," Jerry thought,
+riding through a puddle on his way to the shopping center. It was a
+remark he had heard his father make, and seemed somehow appropriate.
+
+Jerry had to wait and wait before George would notice him.
+
+"Don't tell me you've come again for change!" George cried. "I won't
+give it to you."
+
+"Please, just this one time," Jerry pleaded. "I have to have it.
+Honest."
+
+Grumbling, George went to the cash register and changed the bill. Then
+he took Jerry firmly by the shoulder. "Out you go and stay out. I
+don't want to see hide nor hair of you again until you need your next
+haircut. Understand?"
+
+Jerry understood. He realized that getting bills changed at the
+barbershop was over.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jerry was not his usual buoyant self over the weekend. His mother
+thought he might be getting a cold and gave him vitamin pills and made
+him drink extra orange juice. She knew something was troubling him but
+could not get out of him what it was. Jerry shut a door of
+communication between them. He found it lonely, having to be on his
+guard against blurting out his secret.
+
+At a little after seven on Monday evening, the whole Martin family
+piled in the car to go to the P. T. A. meeting. It was unusual for the
+children to go to a P. T. A. but not for Mr. and Mrs. Martin. Jerry
+and Cathy insisted that their parents go to the meetings, for a count
+was made and the class represented by the most parents got an award.
+Now that Andy was in kindergarten both parents stood up when the count
+was for Miss Prouty's room. And Mr. and Mrs. Martin stood up to be
+counted twice for the sixth grade.
+
+All the Martins but Andy took seats near the front of the auditorium.
+He had to go immediately behind scenes on the stage, since the play he
+was to be in was to come first on the program. That was in order to
+allow the parents of the kindergartners to take them home early if
+they so wished.
+
+Andy had looked a bit pale when he left his family.
+
+"I hope he's not so excited he'll throw up," Cathy said worriedly. "He
+looks pretty scared."
+
+"Scared? Andy scared? Of course he's not scared," said Jerry stoutly,
+though he knew very well that Andy really was scared and was only
+defending him.
+
+"Anyway, he knows his piece," said Cathy. "He said it over to me three
+times before dinner and didn't make a mistake."
+
+Before the curtain went up, Miss Kurtz, the principal, made a short
+speech about giving parents an opportunity to share in the school
+activities of their children. She spoke about the importance of
+creativity, a long word Jerry did not quite understand, but thought
+meant making up things. Then the curtain rose and there was the bears'
+house. Only it didn't have any upstairs. Goldilocks wasn't there yet
+but the porridge was on the table in a big, a medium, and a tiny bowl.
+And here came Andy, walking stiffly to the front of the stage. He
+looked very small.
+
+Jerry saw that his father and mother looked anxious, as anxious as
+Jerry felt. "Come on, Andy. Say it and get it over with," Jerry
+muttered.
+
+"Sh-sh," said Cathy.
+
+The audience looked at Andy and Andy looked at them. Seconds passed.
+Andy did not utter a word.
+
+From behind scenes Miss Prouty prompted him.
+
+"We welcome you, dear parents," she said in a voice barely audible to
+the audience.
+
+Andy's lips did not move. His face looked frozen in fright. He just
+stood there.
+
+Miss Prouty prompted him again. Still Andy did not open his mouth.
+Some boy near the back of the hall clapped. That sound seemed to wake
+Andy from his trance of fear. He raised his head and gave the audience
+a large, beaming smile. Then Andy spoke his piece.
+
+    Gene, Gene--had a machine.
+    Joe, Joe--made it go.
+    Frank, Frank--turned the crank.
+    His mother came out and gave him a spank
+    And threw him over a sandbank.
+
+Andy spoke up nice and loud and then made a bow. Apparently he did not
+realize that he had spoken the wrong piece.
+
+The auditorium suddenly rocked with laughter. Miss Prouty shooed Andy
+off the stage and apologized for him. Then she spoke the "Dear
+parents" poem herself.
+
+Cathy just had time to whisper angrily to Jerry, "It's all your
+fault--you taught him that awful rhyme," before Andy came to sit with
+his family. He did not seem at all upset and apparently enjoyed the
+program, though he yawned a few times before it was over.
+
+Everybody said it had been a good program. In the car going home, Mr.
+Martin said he could hear Cathy's voice above the other girls', sweet
+as a bird. And Mrs. Martin said that Jerry had rung his bells exactly
+on time and very nicely. They carefully avoided mentioning anything
+about Andy's piece.
+
+They were just getting out of the car when Andy broke into loud wails
+of extreme sorrow.
+
+"I said the wrong piece," he sobbed. "I said the wrong piece and
+everybody laughed at me."
+
+"Never you mind, son. Folks enjoy a good laugh," said Mr. Martin.
+
+"There, there!" Andy's mother soothed him. "We all make mistakes. He's
+getting a delayed reaction," she told the others. "And it's long past
+his bedtime."
+
+Jerry really felt sorry for Andy. "Tell you what, Andy, I promise I'll
+take you to the zoo next Saturday. You'll like that, won't you?"
+
+"I don't want to see the loud animals. I want to go see the quiet
+ones," said Andy, sniffing though his sobs had ceased.
+
+"Okay, I'll take you to the Museum of Natural History," agreed Jerry,
+understanding that by "loud" Andy meant alive and by "quiet" he meant
+stuffed animals.
+
+"Ned Brooks hollered so loud my ears hurt. He sounded like this.
+'Who's been eating _my_ porridge?'" Andy bellowed the words so loud
+that his mother put her hands over her ears.
+
+"Sometimes I think I would prefer quiet children," she said.
+
+Andy began speaking for Baby Bear, his voice tiny. He was in high
+spirits again. Jerry wished that all his fret and worry about the
+charge account and getting change could disappear as easily as Andy's
+sorrow. During the P. T. A. meeting Jerry had pushed his worries to
+the background of his thoughts. Now he found them right up front
+again. The next time his mother sent him to the store, where was he to
+go to get change now that George the barber had failed him?
+
+The family drank hot chocolate and ate cookies in the kitchen before
+going to bed. The half-melted marshmallows on top gave Andy a white
+mustache before his mother wiped his face with a napkin. He got in her
+lap and snuggled against her while she sipped her chocolate. When you
+were little like Andy you were easily forgiven for almost anything,
+Jerry thought, his conscience troubled about the charge account.
+
+Jerry was finishing his second cup of hot chocolate when an easy
+solution to the change problem dawned on him. He had made several
+trips to the store this week and each time put away Mr. Bartlett's
+money in bills and small change. There must be money enough up attic
+in that white shoe to change a five and probably a ten. Yes, Jerry was
+sure he could change a ten. "I can make my own change," he thought
+happily. And suddenly the charge account seemed a good scheme again.
+
+"You look mighty pleased with yourself, Jerry," said his mother.
+
+"I just thought of something."
+
+"What?" asked Cathy.
+
+"I'll tell you sometime," Jerry promised.
+
+"Why does Jerry have to act so darned mysterious lately?" Cathy
+complained to her mother.
+
+"A boy has a right to keep a few things to himself," said Mrs. Martin.
+
+Jerry was grateful to his mother for taking his part. "When I get that
+candy from Bartlett's," he thought, "I won't forget that I've promised
+the first piece to Andy. But my mother will get the next piece."
+
+Jerry thought of his mother reaching in the box for a pink mint and
+smiled.
+
+"You're up to something. I can tell it by the way you look," remarked
+Cathy.
+
+He would have to be on his guard against Cathy, Jerry realized. Up
+till now he had found it almost impossible to keep a secret from his
+twin sister.
+
+"Want me to wipe away your tears?" he jibed. It seemed mean to say
+something on purpose to make Cathy mad but that would take her mind
+off being curious.
+
+
+
+
+4
+
+No Safe Hiding Place
+
+
+The next week was not as trying to Jerry as the week before, now that
+he was able to make change up attic. Yet it grew increasingly
+difficult to dodge Cathy. Time after time she caught up with him
+either coming up or going down the attic stairs.
+
+"What are you doing up attic?" she kept asking.
+
+"Nothing," he would say. Or, "Don't you wish you knew?" He even told
+her that she would know all there was to know about it in less than a
+month, that is, if there were anything to know. This last statement
+was the truth, though Cathy did not believe him. She kept hounding
+him.
+
+On Saturday, though it was a good day for baseball, Jerry remembered
+his promise to take Andy to see the "quiet" animals. Since their
+mother did not have time to drive them to town, they took a bus. It
+was a short walk from the bus stop to the Museum of Natural History,
+one of the buildings of the Smithsonian Institution, but Jerry knew
+the way.
+
+Although the Smithsonian had just opened, there were already two big
+buses unloading at the front door. _East Liverpool_, the signs on the
+buses said. That was in Ohio, Jerry told his small brother. And the
+big boys and girls getting out of the buses were doubtless members of
+a high school graduating class on a tour of Washington.
+
+"People come from all over the United States to see Washington,
+especially this time of year when the cherry blossoms are out," said
+Jerry. "Guess they wish they were like us and lived here." It suddenly
+seemed pretty nice to Jerry to live in a city so important that it was
+visited by people from all parts of the country.
+
+"I'd rather live out West with the cowboys," said Andy. He never would
+believe that ever so many people out West were not cowboys or Indians.
+
+Before going to see the stuffed animals Andy wanted to take a look at
+his favorite dinosaur. There were other dinosaurs in the exhibit but
+Andy always devoted himself to the one nearest the entrance. "Dip," he
+called the enormous skeleton, though its full name was _Diplodocus_.
+Jerry was interested in reading that the bones of this dinosaur had
+been found out in Utah and that it was seventy feet long and twelve
+feet high. Andy did not care about details.
+
+"Good old Dip!" said Andy, and gazed at his bony friend with great
+satisfaction.
+
+The boys lingered a long time looking at the "quiet" animals. Andy
+wished that he could have one of the two bear cubs to take home with
+him, now that he was too old to play with Teddy bears. He also
+thought it would be fun to learn to ride a tame buffalo.
+
+"You can't tame a buffalo," said Jerry.
+
+"_I_ could," said Andy with complete confidence. "Now I want to see
+the Indians."
+
+The boys looked at displays of Indians doing a snake dance, Indians
+weaving baskets, grinding corn, weaving rugs, playing games--or just
+standing, being Indians.
+
+"Where did they find so many Indians to stuff?" asked Andy.
+
+Jerry barely stopped himself from giving a loud ha-ha. He decided not
+to laugh at his little brother. After seeing so many stuffed animals
+it was a natural thing for Andy to think the Indians were also
+stuffed. They certainly looked real.
+
+"They don't stuff people," Jerry explained kindly. "The Indians are
+sort of statues, only some of them have more clothes on."
+
+Andy seemed a bit disappointed that they were not real Indians.
+
+After a quick trip upstairs to see an enormous whale, Jerry and Andy
+were through with the museum. Having had nothing to eat since
+breakfast, they were naturally half-starved, so, although it was now
+only eleven-thirty, they decided to have lunch. Their mother had given
+them lunch money. There was no lunchroom near the museum. They had to
+walk way up to Pennsylvania Avenue before they found a cafeteria.
+Then they had a satisfying lunch of hamburgers, milk, lemon pie, and
+chocolate layer cake.
+
+Being downtown gave both boys a sort of holiday feeling and they were
+in no hurry to go home. For Jerry it was a reprieve from his worry
+about the charge account, which by now had become a burden. Once
+having picked it up, he had to go on carrying it. Here in town with
+Andy, the weight seemed less heavy.
+
+"While we're so near, we may as well go take a look at the cherry
+blossoms," suggested Jerry.
+
+Andy did not much care about flowers he was not allowed to pick but he
+let himself be persuaded. On their way to the Tidal Basin, where the
+cherry blossoms were, they were not far from the Washington Monument,
+with its circle of flags blowing in the breeze. Andy teased to go up
+in the Monument but Jerry said there were too many people waiting in
+line.
+
+"We'll do it some other time," he promised.
+
+It pleased Andy that he was doing something with Jerry again. He took
+big steps to match Jerry's.
+
+Near the Tidal Basin there were people taking pictures of each other
+under the flowering trees. Along the path close to the water, men,
+women, and young people were walking. There, the cherry trees bent
+over the basin to see themselves reflected in the quiet depths.
+
+Andy sniffed the air. "Smells nice," he said.
+
+Jerry could understand why so many people came to Washington to see
+the cherry blossoms. "They're really something," he said.
+
+"The pinky trees look like strawberry ice cream cones," said Andy,
+which for him was high praise. Strawberry was his favorite ice cream.
+
+It was nearly four before Jerry and Andy got home. The house next door
+to theirs had been vacant so long that they were surprised to see a
+moving van in front of it.
+
+"Well, what do you know? Somebody must have bought the house. Wonder
+what they'll be like," mused Jerry.
+
+They stood and watched the movers take in a long green sofa, a table,
+and several cartons.
+
+"I want something to eat," said Andy.
+
+So did Jerry. It was a long time since lunch. "What can we have to
+eat?" he called to his mother just as soon as he was in the back door.
+He and Andy went looking for their mother and found her sitting by a
+window in the living room, which overlooked the house next door. She
+was watching the moving.
+
+"We saw all the quiet animals and Dip and the pretend Indians," Andy
+informed his mother. "I'm hungry."
+
+"You can have cookies and a glass of milk but don't touch the cake.
+That's for dessert tonight."
+
+"Where's Cathy?" Jerry thought to ask.
+
+"Seems as if she said something about looking for something up attic,"
+said Mrs. Martin.
+
+Jerry forgot his hunger. It seemed to him a sneaky thing for Cathy to
+do, to go searching the attic while he was out of the house. Had she
+found Mr. Bartlett's money? If she had she would have been downstairs
+with it. But any second she might find it. Jerry rushed for the
+stairs.
+
+Breathless, he arrived at the top of the second flight.
+
+The attic was unfinished--low under the two gables. Against one of the
+high walls hung a row of garment bags. Mr. Bartlett's money was in the
+third one. Jerry tried to keep from looking at it. Cathy was smart
+enough to watch where he was looking. She was busy tossing stuff out
+of the bottom drawer of an old chest of drawers.
+
+"What do you think you're doing?" Jerry asked her.
+
+"Mummy's going to house-clean up here Monday. I'm helping by clearing
+out drawers."
+
+"You mean you're snooping around to see what you can find."
+
+Cathy stopped pawing in the drawer. "So you _are_ hiding something up
+here. I knew it. I knew it."
+
+Too late Jerry realized he had said too much. He had made Cathy more
+suspicious of him than ever.
+
+Cathy picked the stuff up off the floor--it was mostly cloth saved for
+mending and for rags--and crammed it in the drawer, shutting it
+crookedly. She blinked her blue eyes at Jerry. "Tell me what you're
+hiding up here. Cross my heart I won't tell on you."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It irritated Jerry to have Cathy blink her eyes at him.
+
+"Whatever gave you the idea I was hiding anything up here or
+anywhere?"
+
+"I'd tell you if I had something to hide."
+
+"Yeah! You would not."
+
+"I would, too. You're mean. You're the meanest boy I ever knew."
+
+"I'd a darn sight rather be mean than snoopy. You're just a sneaky
+snooper, that's what you are."
+
+"I hate you."
+
+"See if I care."
+
+Cathy's eyes blazed with blue fire. Then Jerry was surprised to see
+them fill with tears. She got to her feet and rushed toward the
+stairs.
+
+"Want me to wipe away your tears?" called Jerry, as she clattered down
+the stairs. The instant the words were out, he was a little ashamed of
+them. He had not meant to make her cry. Why did she have to cry so
+easy? She hadn't used to.
+
+Jerry couldn't figure out what had gotten into Cathy lately. All this
+caring about how she looked. All this fussing about clothes. And the
+way she blinked her eyes at boys. It was enough to make a person sick.
+Less than a year ago he had heard Cathy say that girls who used powder
+and lipstick were dopes. Now she herself was carrying a lipstick in
+her handbag. Jerry guessed she had not sunk so low she used eye makeup
+but he wouldn't put it past her almost any time. Not long ago he and
+Cathy had liked to do the same things, liked the same things. Now they
+didn't even agree about movies. Cathy actually didn't mind love in a
+picture. She even liked pictures in which the hero kissed a girl, and
+Jerry could hardly bear to see a cowboy kiss a horse. Jerry missed the
+Cathy he used to know. The way she was now made him mad.
+
+One thing was sure. The attic was no longer a safe place for Mr.
+Bartlett's money. Not with Cathy snooping around, for she was a good
+finder. Jerry went to the garment bag, got the money out of the white
+shoe--my but there was getting to be a lot--and put the bills in one
+pants pocket and crammed the silver into another. He would have to
+find another hiding place. But where?
+
+Jerry went downstairs. Cathy had joined her mother and Andy at the
+window. They were watching the movers.
+
+"Usually you can get an idea about what people are like by their
+furniture," Jerry heard his mother say, "but I never saw such a
+conglomeration go into any house. Our new neighbor's name is Bullfinch
+and he's a retired college professor. His having a lot of books I can
+understand but why a jungle gym? He doesn't have any children. There
+are just he and his wife."
+
+Jerry would have avoided being near the family until he had found a
+new hiding place for Mr. Bartlett's money if Cathy had not exclaimed,
+"Look at that! Assorted sizes of cages."
+
+Jerry had to come and look, too, then. He saw one of the movers going
+in the house next door with a small gilded cage in one hand and a
+picture frame in the other. After him came the other moving man with a
+cage so large it was all he could carry.
+
+"The smaller one could be for a bird but what on earth could the big
+one be for?" Mrs. Martin was puzzled.
+
+"Maybe he has a chimp for a pet," Jerry contributed.
+
+"Heaven forbid!" gasped his mother.
+
+"But chimps are wonderful pets. Remember reading about that chimp that
+does finger painting? Her owner sells the pictures. Actually gets real
+money for them. That's more than old Andy gets for _his_ finger
+painting," said Jerry.
+
+"Not if I wanted to," said Andy.
+
+Several large oil paintings were carried into the house next door, but
+they were too far away for Jerry to judge if they had been painted by
+a chimp. He guessed not. Pictures painted by chimps weren't usually
+put in heavy gold frames. In went a tall grandfather clock, a
+full-length mirror with a gold eagle on top, an immense old-fashioned
+roll-top desk.
+
+"I never saw such a mixture of good antiques and trash," said Mrs.
+Martin.
+
+"Say," said Jerry, "if Mr. Bullfinch does have a chimp for a pet,
+maybe Andy and I can teach him finger painting. Then if we sold the
+pictures Mr. Bullfinch would give us part of the money."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Cathy made a noise that showed what she thought of that idea.
+
+"You and your schemes!" said Mrs. Martin. She turned away from the
+window and smiled at Jerry. Then one of those especially noticing
+looks came over her face. "What on earth do you have in your pants
+pocket that drags it down? You shouldn't stuff heavy things in your
+pockets. You'll tear them and they're hard to mend."
+
+The next thing would be to ask him to take out whatever was weighing
+down his pocket. Jerry could sense it coming. "I just thought of
+something," he cried, and rushed from the living room. A few seconds
+later the back door slammed behind him. He had made it safely
+outdoors.
+
+"Whew, that was a narrow escape!" he thought. But he felt Mr.
+Bartlett's money as not only a heavy weight in his pocket but on his
+mind. "I won't dare take it back in the house, with Cathy sniffing all
+over the place. Even if she wasn't, the money wouldn't be safe up
+attic, not after my mother gets to house-cleaning up there. She
+doesn't miss a thing. And the cellar would be no good. My father is
+always hunting around down there for screws and paint and stuff he's
+put away and can't remember where. But what the heck am I going to do
+with Mr. Bartlett's money now?"
+
+
+
+
+5
+
+New Neighbors
+
+
+Jerry thought of burying Mr. Bartlett's money somewhere in the yard.
+He gave up that idea when he considered the complication of digging it
+up every time he came back from the store and had to make change.
+Besides, this time of year his mother was likely to be planting
+flowers all over the place.
+
+Jerry decided he might as well watch the moving in next door while he
+was trying to think of a safe hiding place for Mr. Bartlett's money.
+Better keep out of sight from the front window of his house, though.
+Jerry climbed the picket fence that separated his yard from Mr.
+Bullfinch's. Then, crouching low, he ran from bush to bush and took
+his stand in front of a weigela bush that screened him from being seen
+by his family.
+
+The movers were big, brawny men. Jerry saw them lift a huge wardrobe
+as if it were light as a feather. Nearly as light, anyway. As they
+took it in the house, a man came out. He was tall and thin and
+slightly stooped, with a thatch of silver-gray hair. Must be Mr.
+Bullfinch, Jerry thought, and wondered if he shouldn't leave before
+being asked to. Jerry had learned that you never can tell about
+people wanting you or not wanting you in their yards.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch saw Jerry and walked toward him. He smiled with his
+whole face, especially his eyes, and Jerry smiled back a bit shyly. "I
+like to watch people moving in," Jerry said.
+
+"So do I except when I'm the one being moved. Live around here, do
+you? Seems a pleasant neighborhood."
+
+"Next door. It _is_ a nice neighborhood. A few cranky people on this
+street but not many. Say, what a whopper of a chair!"
+
+The movers had taken an enormous brown leather chair out of the van
+and were taking it in the front door.
+
+"I have to tell them where I want it put. Come on in," Mr. Bullfinch
+invited Jerry.
+
+Jerry always enjoyed going in a strange house. He tagged after Mr.
+Bullfinch as he directed the movers to deposit the big chair in front
+of the fireplace in the den.
+
+"Some chair! Is it for you to sit in?" asked Jerry.
+
+"It's a remarkable chair. It does tricks. Runs by electricity," said
+Mr. Bullfinch, taking an electric cord from the seat and unwinding it.
+He looked around and found an outlet and put in the plug. "Want to try
+it out?" he asked Jerry. "Sit down in the chair and press the button
+on the right arm and see what happens."
+
+Jerry was not at all sure he wanted to try out the tricks of the
+chair. "I don't know if I have time right now," he said. Mr. Bullfinch
+did not look like the sort of man who would install an electric
+chair, the kind they have in penitentiaries, in his house and begin to
+execute his neighbors the first day he moved in. Still, better be safe
+than sorry, Jerry reasoned.
+
+"I'll show you how it works," said Mr. Bullfinch, sitting down in the
+chair. He pressed a button to the right, and the back of the chair
+went down and the part that hung down in front came up, making what
+looked like a narrow cot.
+
+"That's not half of it," said Mr. Bullfinch, punching another button.
+
+Jerry gasped as the right arm of the chair swung over and began to rub
+Mr. Bullfinch's stomach while the whole contraption jerked up and
+down.
+
+"Takes plenty of power to do that," said Mr. Bullfinch from his
+reclining position. "I shudder to think of what my electric bill will
+be if I use it often." He laughed heartily. "It tickles." Then he
+pushed the button that stopped the jerking and massaging and the one
+that made the chair regain its chair-like appearance. And there was
+Mr. Bullfinch sitting up again, looking just the same except that his
+hair was a little rumpled.
+
+"It's supposed to reduce you if you're too fat and build you up if
+you're too thin. It's an exerciser and health builder. Trade name for
+it is the Excello. Believe I'll call it the Bumper. It does thump and
+bump a bit, you know. Now do you want to try it?"
+
+It was nice of Mr. Bullfinch to forget that Jerry had just said he
+didn't have time to try it out. Jerry warmed to his new neighbor. So
+now he sat in the big chair and pushed the buttons, roaring with
+laughter when the right arm of the chair began to massage his stomach.
+
+"You have hardly enough middle to rub," said Mr. Bullfinch. He didn't
+hurry Jerry. He let him try out the chair for as long as he wanted to.
+
+When Jerry got up out of the chair the paper bag containing all of Mr.
+Bartlett's change fell from his pocket. The bag broke and the money
+rolled in all directions.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch helped Jerry pick up the money. Not having another paper
+bag at hand, Mr. Bullfinch gave Jerry a worn tobacco pouch to put the
+money in. He did not ask why Jerry happened to be carrying so much
+money in his pocket.
+
+"Ever go to auctions?" asked Mr. Bullfinch, as Jerry crammed the
+tobacco pouch in his pants pocket. The pocket tore slightly. His
+mother would be after him for that, Jerry thought worriedly.
+
+"Double darn!" said Jerry. "I'm not talking to you--I'm just sorry I
+tore my pocket," Jerry said to Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+"Well, 'double darn' seems an appropriate remark for a torn pocket,"
+said Mr. Bullfinch. "Did you say you'd ever been to an auction?"
+
+Jerry hadn't and said so.
+
+"Auctions are my hobby," said Mr. Bullfinch. "People need to have a
+hobby when they retire and mine is auctions. Greatest sport I know
+of. Course you're likely to pick up a few things you haven't any
+immediate need for but at least you get something for your money. Mrs.
+Bullfinch scolds me sometimes for what I buy but I can't resist the
+fun of bidding. Up to a point, that is. I set myself a limit on what
+I'll spend at an auction. Guess I do get stuck with some strange
+objects once in a while. You should have seen Mrs. Bullfinch's face
+when I brought home a job lot of empty cages."
+
+"Don't you have pets to put in any of them?" Jerry's face showed his
+disappointment. If not a chimp he had hoped for a parrot or at least a
+canary.
+
+"Not a one," said Mr. Bullfinch. "Guess I'll have to wait till they
+auction off some of the animals in the Washington zoo."
+
+"They'll never do that."
+
+"I was only joking. Do you have any pets?"
+
+"Just a cat named Bibsy because she has a white front. Like a bib, you
+know."
+
+"Well, if I see a mouse around here I hope you'll lend me Bibsy."
+
+"I will." Jerry sensed that Mr. Bullfinch thought it was time for him
+to be leaving. And Jerry was about to when a woman screamed loud as a
+fire siren.
+
+"My wife!" cried Mr. Bullfinch and rushed toward the back of the
+house, Jerry following him.
+
+Out in the kitchen, standing on a high stool, was Mrs. Bullfinch.
+She was a small plump woman wearing a pink apron. She looked
+terrified.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"A spider!" she gasped. "I had a broom and was making sure there were
+no spiders around the ceiling when the biggest spider I've ever seen
+in my life ran down the broom handle. It ran right across my arm." She
+shuddered till the stool she was standing on shook. "I brushed it off.
+It was horrible. I didn't see where it went but it's in this room
+somewhere. And I won't get off this stool until it's found and
+killed."
+
+"Better get down, dear," said her husband. "There are two of us here
+to protect you." He looked around the room for the spider, opening
+cupboard doors to see if it had run in a cupboard. "It's taken off for
+parts unknown by this time," he said soothingly. "Come on, get down.
+You'll want to tell the movers where to put the piano."
+
+"It's still in this room. I know it. If I get down it might run up my
+leg. Oh, dear! Oh, dear!"
+
+She was pretty heavy for that stool, Jerry thought, expecting one of
+its legs to crack any minute. She's like Little Miss Muffett, afraid
+of spiders--only she climbed a stool instead of being frightened away.
+He glanced down at the broom on the floor where Mrs. Bullfinch had
+thrown it. A large hairy spider was just crawling out of the
+broomstraws.
+
+Jerry had never moved more quickly. Three steps and he had brought his
+foot down hard. Jerry did not enjoy killing even a spider but this
+time it seemed necessary, though he carefully refrained from looking
+at the dead insect.
+
+"Good boy!" said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+Mrs. Bullfinch, with a little help from her husband, got down from the
+stool. She thanked Jerry earnestly and effusively.
+
+"I'll not forget this. Someday I hope to do something for you. You
+don't know how obliged to you I am. That spider might have killed me."
+
+Jerry did not think that the spider had been the kind that would have
+a bite that killed. Being thought a hero was pleasant, however. "Think
+nothing of it," he said, looking more cocky than modest in spite of
+his words.
+
+"Where you want the pianer?" shouted one of the movers, and Mrs.
+Bullfinch bustled off to the living room.
+
+There did not seem to be any reason for Jerry to stay any longer. He
+had a feeling that Mr. Bullfinch, though still very polite, had things
+he wanted to see to. So Jerry murmured something about having to get
+home and Mr. Bullfinch told him again that he was indebted to him for
+killing the spider.
+
+"I never knew anybody as afraid of spiders as Mrs. Bullfinch," he
+said. "Everybody has something he's afraid of, I guess. With Mrs.
+Bullfinch it's spiders."
+
+Jerry didn't know if he should leave by the back or the front door but
+Mr. Bullfinch led the way to the front. Jerry admired the grandfather
+clock in the front hall. On the glass above its face there was a
+painted globe in pale green and yellow. Jerry had almost reached the
+front door when the clock struck five--long, solemn sounds of great
+dignity.
+
+"That sure is a big clock," said Jerry.
+
+"I didn't buy that at an auction, it was in the family," said Mr.
+Bullfinch. "When I was a little boy I once hid inside when we were
+playing hide and seek. That was the time I stopped the clock," he
+chuckled.
+
+Suddenly Jerry thought of a safe hiding place for Mr. Bartlett's
+money. What Mr. Bullfinch had said about hiding in the clock had given
+him the idea.
+
+"Say," he said with barely controlled excitement, "would you mind if I
+kept the money I have on me in your clock?"
+
+Mr. Bartlett gave Jerry a long appraising look. Then his eyes lit up
+in one of his nice smiles. "Not at all. Not at all," he said
+cordially.
+
+"I may need to come and get some out or put some in now and then. If
+that would not be making too much trouble."
+
+"Not at all. Not at all. Come any time you like. I've never run a bank
+before. New experience for me."
+
+Jerry could tell that Mr. Bullfinch was almost making fun of him.
+Never mind, he was letting him keep Mr. Bartlett's money in the bottom
+of the clock. And how grateful Jerry was to Mr. Bullfinch for not
+asking any embarrassing questions about the money! Even before he had
+shut the clock door on Mr. Bartlett's money and had started for home,
+Jerry had decided that he liked his new neighbor, Mr. Bullfinch. He
+liked him a lot.
+
+
+
+
+6
+
+"The Stars and Stripes Forever"
+
+
+Jerry found it a relief not to have to worry about Cathy's snooping,
+now that he was keeping Mr. Bartlett's money next door in the
+grandfather clock. The only trouble was that stopping off at the
+Bullfinches' on his way home often took considerable time. If Mr.
+Bullfinch had been to an auction--and besides attending a weekly
+auction in town he now and then went to one in nearby Maryland or
+Virginia--Jerry always had to be shown what treasure Mr. Bullfinch had
+acquired. One day it was a worn Oriental rug, another, an incomplete
+set of fine English porcelain. The prize purchase as far as Jerry was
+concerned was an old-fashioned phonograph with a horn like a big blue
+morning glory flower. Jerry's father had a hi-fi which made records
+sound as if the musicians were right in the same room with you, but
+Jerry enjoyed the faintly mechanical sound that accompanied music
+played on the old phonograph. It was like preferring canned peaches to
+fresh ones. Nice for a change anyway.
+
+Jerry liked to stay at the Bullfinches' long enough to listen to a
+record or two. He was not so happy about being delayed by Mrs.
+Bullfinch. She was a great talker. She told Jerry very much more than
+he cared to know about her family, Mr. Bullfinch's family, and every
+college town they had lived in while Mr. Bullfinch was teaching. He
+had, it seemed, been a Latin teacher until the demand for Latin had
+grown so small that he had thought best to switch to teaching English.
+
+"It was teaching Freshman English that turned his hair gray," said
+Mrs. Bullfinch. "Having so many students come to college without
+knowing how to write a grammatical sentence was a great sorrow to
+him."
+
+Jerry's opinion was that Mr. Bullfinch's hair had turned gray from old
+age. Mrs. Bullfinch's hair was gray, too, and she hadn't taught
+Freshman English. Jerry would have asked her what had turned her hair
+gray if he had not been afraid it would have been too long a story.
+Not that Jerry disliked Mrs. Bullfinch even though she was
+long-winded. She was kind and she made good cookies. Jerry usually
+went home from the Bullfinch house munching an oatmeal cookie.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"You took long enough getting back from the store to have gone and
+come back twice," scolded Jerry's mother an afternoon when he had
+stopped to play "The Stars and Stripes Forever" on Mr. Bullfinch's
+phonograph on his way home from the store. It was Jerry's favorite
+record, with John Philip Sousa leading his own band. One reason
+Jerry liked this particular march was because he had shaken bells to
+it in the rhythm band at school. Next summer Jerry was going to take
+lessons playing a horn. He had already picked out the instrument he
+wanted to learn to play, a giant tuba in Kitt's music store downtown.
+By fall he would be ready to play in the junior high band.
+
+Jerry was thinking of playing in a band and was not paying much
+attention to his mother's scolding, when she said something that
+shocked him into alertness.
+
+"Next time I want something from the store in a hurry, I'll send
+Cathy," she said.
+
+"Honest, next time I'll come home like the wind," Jerry promised. It
+wouldn't do at all to have Cathy go to the store. Mr. Bartlett knew
+her. He might ask her if she wanted the groceries charged before she
+got the money out to pay for them. And good-by then to Jerry's secret
+charge account. "You said running errands was my chore," he reminded
+his mother. "You haven't heard me gripe about having to go to the
+store, have you?"
+
+"Not recently," his mother acknowledged. "It's something to have you
+so willing. But why can't you come right home with the groceries? Now
+I was going to make Bavarian cream for dessert tonight but you're too
+late getting back with the whipping cream."
+
+"I'm sorry." Jerry really was. He was very fond of Bavarian cream.
+
+"Let's see. I have a box of gingerbread mix. And I can make applesauce
+while it's baking."
+
+"That will be swell," said Jerry.
+
+"Go find Cathy, will you, Jerry? I wouldn't be surprised if you found
+her somewhere with her nose in a book. Tell her to come and peel the
+apples for me."
+
+Jerry was glad to get away from his mother just then. It was not hard
+to find Cathy. She was on the window seat in the living room. Jerry
+could see the book jacket of the book she was reading. It was _Going
+Steady_ and had a picture of a boy and a girl gazing fondly at each
+other while skating. Cathy was not old enough to go steady--Jerry had
+heard his mother say so--and it made Jerry sick that his twin sister
+liked to read all that guff about having dates with boys and things
+like that. Now a horse story, or a dog story--they were good reading.
+So were books about rockets, planets, dinosaurs, Abraham Lincoln, and
+ever so many other interesting subjects. Cathy liked to read good
+books like that, too, Jerry had to acknowledge, but she also had
+developed an interest in books that had falling in love in them, an
+interest Jerry not only did not share but despised.
+
+"Lift your big blue eyes from that lousy book," said Jerry in a
+mocking voice. "Mummy wants you to come out in the kitchen and peel
+apples."
+
+Cathy put down her book reluctantly. Her eyes were dreamy. She sighed.
+"I suppose it's a girl's duty to help her mother," she said.
+
+She got to her feet and glided out of the room, walking as nearly as
+she could like a movie star whose latest picture she had seen at the
+neighborhood theater the previous Saturday afternoon.
+
+Jerry picked up _Going Steady_ and examined the cover more closely. He
+threw it down. "Cathy must have rocks in her head to like a book like
+that," he thought.
+
+The clock on the living room mantel struck the half hour. Five-thirty.
+Jerry had an hour to kill before time for dinner. What was there to
+do? A wave of irritation against Cathy swept over him. She ought to be
+sharing all this work and worry about the charge account. A year ago
+he could have confided in her safely. She could have been counted on
+both to keep the secret and to help him. They always stuck together,
+he and Cathy, until she had changed. Now half the time she acted as if
+she were against him. Look at the way she had snooped around the attic
+like a bum detective. If she had found the money she would have very
+likely said it was her duty to tell on him. Jerry almost never could
+know in advance how she was going to act. Almost he did not like her
+any more.
+
+Jerry went down to the recreation room and turned on the television.
+
+"Send two box tops and twenty-five cents and you will receive--"
+
+"Nuts!" cried Jerry, turning it off. He didn't want to listen to kid
+stuff. It seemed long ago that he had sent box tops and money away
+for secret rings and pasteboard telescopes.
+
+He went to the bookshelves and took down _Black Beauty_. He had read
+it before but he didn't mind reading it again. He liked the book
+because he felt it showed just how a horse thought. He read until he
+was called to dinner.
+
+Two days later Jerry ran into real trouble. It was nearly six and he
+had just come home from playing ball, when his mother said he had
+barely time to run to the store for a pound of cheddar cheese before
+the store closed. And the smallest she had was a five-dollar bill.
+Jerry took his bike and determined to get back in a hurry. No stopping
+to listen to a record this time, even if Mr. Bullfinch had bought some
+new old ones Jerry would like to hear.
+
+Not more than ten minutes after leaving the house, Jerry was ringing
+the Bullfinch doorbell. He would rush in, get his change, and be home
+in a jiffy. But nobody answered the bell. Jerry rang again, with his
+finger pressed on the bell hard. He could hear the bell ring inside.
+Still nobody came to the door.
+
+"But they're always home this time of day," Jerry worried. He decided
+it was no use to keep on ringing the bell. "They should have told me
+they weren't going to be home," he thought, yet he really knew there
+was no reason why they should. But he had to get in to change his
+five-dollar bill. He just had to.
+
+"They'll probably be here any minute now," Jerry tried to reassure
+himself. "It's past time for Mrs. Bullfinch to be getting dinner." But
+what if the Bullfinches had been invited out to dinner? Jerry groaned
+at the thought. What could he do?
+
+"I have to get in." That was the thought that kept repeating itself in
+his mind, the thought that sent him around the house testing every
+window he could reach to see if he could find one unlocked. "They told
+me to come in any time, didn't they?" Jerry argued with himself.
+
+At last Jerry found a cellar window unlocked. He pushed and it swung
+in over an empty coalbin. The Bullfinches had an oil furnace but Jerry
+could see by the coal dust that there had once been coal in that bin.
+
+"I'll be bound to get my pants dirty but I guess it will brush off."
+
+Jerry was half in and half out of the window before he realized that
+he could not go on with it. He could not make himself break in the
+Bullfinch house. He needed to get in. He kept telling himself that
+probably the Bullfinches would not mind a bit, yet he still couldn't
+bring himself to going in a neighbor's house like a burglar.
+
+"Don't be a sissy. What are you scared of? Nobody's going to find out.
+And if they did. I'm not going to hurt a thing."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It was no use. Jerry could not argue himself into even innocent
+housebreaking. As he was swinging his legs off the windowsill, he
+heard music, familiar music, "The Stars and Stripes Forever." While he
+had been fussing and fretting at the cellar window, the Bullfinches
+must have come home and Mr. Bullfinch had put on the Sousa record.
+
+Jerry carefully pulled the cellar window shut and ran to the front
+door again. Again he pushed the bell. Again he listened. No footsteps
+coming toward the door. And the music had stopped. But Jerry had heard
+it. He knew he had heard it. Somebody must be there. Then why didn't
+somebody come to let him in? Giving up ringing the bell, Jerry
+knocked. He even kicked the door. No response to that either. "If
+they're there they've decided not to let me in," Jerry reasoned.
+
+"But they like me. They wouldn't do a thing like that. I'll go and see
+if their car is in the garage and then I'll know for sure if they're
+home. I might not have heard the car come in while I was on the other
+side of the house."
+
+Jerry hurried out to the garage. The garage door was open. No car. It
+was obvious that the Bullfinches were still not home.
+
+"But I could have sworn I heard somebody inside playing 'The Stars and
+Stripes Forever.'" Jerry wondered if he had imagined he had heard the
+band music.
+
+"Nobody's home," said a small voice. And there was Andy just outside
+the Bullfinch yard.
+
+"Don't you suppose I know it?" barked Jerry.
+
+Andy ran off as a car came up the street and stopped with a screech
+of brakes in front of the Bullfinch house. Here were Mr. and Mrs.
+Bullfinch home at last.
+
+They were sorry to have kept Jerry waiting for them to get home. Mr.
+Bullfinch showed Jerry where he kept an extra key behind the mailbox,
+so if Jerry needed to get in again when they were not home, he could.
+
+"It isn't every boy I would trust," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+Both Mr. and Mrs. Bullfinch had been to an auction in Georgetown. They
+had bought a pair of hand-wrought andirons shaped like little
+lighthouses, but Jerry did not stop to admire them. As soon as he had
+changed the five-dollar bill he was off like a shot.
+
+Mrs. Martin had the electric mixer going but she could scold above the
+noise. "Now you're home with the cheese too late for me to make cheese
+sauce for the broccoli. I'm at the end of my patience. Where on earth
+have you been? Why didn't you come straight home from the store?"
+
+"He stops off on his way home to see the Bullfinches," said Cathy,
+getting ice cubes out of the refrigerator to put in the water pitcher.
+"I've seen him go in."
+
+"Tattletale!" snarled Jerry.
+
+"Just saying where you've seen a person isn't tattling, is it,
+Mother?"
+
+"You shoot off your mouth too much," accused Jerry.
+
+"Well, what do you _do_ over at the Bullfinches'?"
+
+"None of your business."
+
+Mrs. Martin shut off the mixer. "I wish you two could be in the same
+room without starting a cat and dog fight. Go get Andy out of the
+bathroom, Jerry. He came home looking as if he'd been in a coal mine
+and I sent him in to take a shower. Help him get dressed in a hurry.
+Dinner is about ready to dish up."
+
+Jerry was glad his mother had her mind partly on dinner or she might
+have insisted on knowing what he did over at the Bullfinches'. He
+sighed. It was all getting too complicated. He certainly would be
+thankful when the month of the charge account was over.
+
+The Martins were eating dessert--it was lemon pudding with meringue on
+top, one of Jerry's favorite desserts--when the doorbell rang.
+
+"I'll go," said Jerry, pushing back his chair.
+
+It was Mr. Bullfinch at the door. And the way he looked at Jerry made
+him feel all shriveled up inside. Mr. Bullfinch looked taller to Jerry
+than usual. His gray eyes were like steel. He had the tobacco pouch in
+his hand.
+
+"Mrs. Bullfinch and I don't want you to keep this at our house any
+longer," he said coldly. "I'm unpleasantly surprised at you, Jerry. I
+didn't size you up as a boy who would break into a neighbor's house.
+It's not that I mind having you go in. It's the sneaky way you went in
+through the cellar window."
+
+"But I didn't--"
+
+"Oh, yes, you did. There was coal dust on the rug in my den. Though
+that I might not have noticed if you hadn't broken the record."
+
+"What record? I tell you I didn't break any record."
+
+"I would be willing to overlook it if you'd told me when I got home.
+You might have known I would put two and two together. I'm not sure
+it's not my duty to report you to the police. I won't this time, for
+the sake of your parents if nothing more. And you won't find the key
+to the house behind the mailbox. I gave permission to use the key to a
+boy I thought I could trust."
+
+Jerry rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes as Mr. Bullfinch
+went down the steps and the walk. Never had he felt so unjustly
+accused. Nor so helpless about defending himself. Mr. Bullfinch was so
+sure Jerry had been in the house and didn't dare say so because of the
+broken record. Record! Now Jerry was sure he had not been imagining
+hearing music while he had been sitting on the sill of the cellar
+window. Somebody _had_ been in there playing "The Stars and Stripes
+Forever" on the phonograph. But who? And where had he gone to so
+quickly before the Bullfinches got home? It was almost enough to make
+Jerry believe in spirits.
+
+On his way back to the dining room, Jerry slipped the tobacco pouch
+under the cushion of a big chair in the living room. No time for now
+to find a safer hiding place.
+
+"Who was it?" asked Mr. Martin, as Jerry took his place at the table
+again.
+
+"Mr. Bullfinch. He returned something I'd left at his house." Jerry's
+eyes were on his plate.
+
+"What did you leave over there?"
+
+Count on Cathy to want to know all of his business. "Ask me no
+questions and I'll tell you no lies," Jerry told her.
+
+"I can whistle," Andy suddenly boasted. "I can whistle real good. Want
+to hear me?"
+
+Without waiting for the wishes of his family to be expressed, Andy
+pursed up his lips and whistled. He still was not much of a whistler,
+yet from the shrill piping emerged a faint resemblance to a few bars
+of "The Stars and Stripes Forever."
+
+A great light dawned on Jerry. Andy at the scene of the crime. Coal
+dust on Andy. And now the clincher, his whistling "The Stars and
+Stripes Forever." It had been Andy in the Bullfinch house. Jerry was
+as sure of it as of the nose on his face. "While I was out looking in
+the garage he would have just had time to get out of the house," Jerry
+thought. "I'll make him tell. It's not fair for me to be blamed for
+something he did. Mr. Bullfinch won't be hard on Andy. He'll think
+he's too little to know better."
+
+"I guess we won't have any more whistling at the dinner table," Mr.
+Martin reproved Andy gently.
+
+Andy looked as well-scrubbed and innocent as a perfect angel. Or a
+nearly perfect angel, Jerry thought. Jerry remembered how Andy would
+shut up like a clam about something he knew he should not have done.
+
+"He can be like a can of sardines. You can't get a thing out of him
+unless you have a key," thought Jerry. And he wondered how he was
+going to pry the truth out of his little brother.
+
+
+
+
+7
+
+Working on Andy
+
+
+Jerry wanted to shake the truth out of Andy before the little boy's
+bedtime. But Andy followed his mother and Cathy to the kitchen after
+dinner and conversed with them all the time they were doing the dinner
+dishes. He had a long story about how a boy had been so bad that
+morning in kindergarten that the teacher made him sit in a chair all
+the time the others were playing a hopping and singing game.
+
+"I could have hopped the highest. I'm a good hopper. Not a
+grasshopper, just a hopper. Want to see me hop?"
+
+"So it was you who were the bad boy. What did you do that was
+naughty?" asked his mother.
+
+"Nothing. I didn't say it was me. Anyway, Tommy Jenks joggled my arm
+or I wouldn't have thrown a crayon at him. I didn't mean to hit him in
+the eye. Lots of times I throw things and they don't hit anybody."
+
+"And that's the truth," remarked Jerry, who had stalked Andy to the
+kitchen. Andy's confession encouraged Jerry. If he owned up so easy
+about throwing a crayon, it would be a cinch to get him to acknowledge
+that he had been inside the Bullfinch house before dinner. "Come on
+up to my room," Jerry invited him. "I've got something to show you."
+
+But it seemed that Andy didn't want to be shown anything just then.
+Usually Jerry tried to keep Andy out of his room instead of inviting
+him in. "He's not so dumb," thought Jerry.
+
+Andy proved very hard to corner. Jerry could not get him alone until
+Andy was in the bathroom, brushing his teeth before going to bed. Then
+Andy tried to get rid of him.
+
+"It's not polite to come in the bathroom when somebody's here. Mummy
+said so."
+
+"Listen," said Jerry. "You listen to me, Andy Martin."
+
+"What you want?"
+
+"I want you to own up to breaking that record over at the Bullfinch
+house."
+
+"What record?" Andy's voice was slightly muffled by toothpaste.
+
+"You know as well as I do. 'The Stars and Stripes Forever.'"
+
+Andy spit in the sink. There was a trace of toothpaste at the left
+corner of his mouth. His eyes were innocent. A bit puzzled maybe but
+unclouded by guilt. "I can't read the names on records."
+
+"But you were whistling it at dinner."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Andy hung up his toothbrush. He tried to get past Jerry but Jerry
+grabbed him. It was like holding a small wild animal but Jerry held
+on. "Nobody's going to be hard on you, Andy. I _know_ you were in the
+Bullfinch house playing that record."
+
+"Nobody knows where I am but me," said Andy.
+
+"How did you get all that coal dust on you? You got it crawling in the
+window into the Bullfinch coalbin, didn't you?"
+
+"I have a mineral collection that has a piece of coal in it. Some of
+the black must have rubbed off on me. That must have been it. I'm a
+very dirty boy. Every speck of dirt sticks to me. Mummy said so. She
+says I'm as dirty as a pig. Is a pig dirtier than a skunk, Jerry?"
+
+Jerry said he thought that skunks weren't usually dirty.
+
+"Remember that time we were out in the car and Daddy said he smelled
+skunk? Phew! It was an awful smell."
+
+"Andy," called his mother from the foot of the stairs. "You get to
+bed. Double quick now."
+
+"Jerry won't let me."
+
+"Stop bothering your little brother, Jerry. Come on down. I'm sure you
+have homework to do."
+
+Andy slid out of Jerry's hold and ran down the hall. "You can't catch
+me," he yelled.
+
+Jerry didn't try. Sometimes Andy was more slippery than an eel, he
+thought dolefully. Getting him to confess that he had been in the
+Bullfinch house would have to wait till tomorrow.
+
+The next morning Jerry woke up feeling heavy in spirit. He still had
+the secret of the charge account on his mind and now there was the
+added weight of Mr. Bullfinch's disappointment in him. Jerry had not
+realized how much he had valued Mr. Bullfinch's approval until he had
+lost it.
+
+"I'll just have to make Andy tell," thought Jerry, as he dressed in a
+hurry after his mother had called him twice.
+
+When Jerry came downstairs, his father was just leaving for work.
+Jerry heard the front door close. Cathy was alone in the dining room
+eating her cereal. She looked so cheerful Jerry could hardly stand it.
+
+"Don't sit down, you might hurt your head," she greeted him.
+Ridiculous remarks were popular with the sixth grade right now and she
+was trying out one she had heard recently.
+
+"Think that's funny? It stinks."
+
+"I was just trying to be pleasant. Mummy especially asked me to try to
+be pleasant to you even when you were aggravating. And you certainly
+_are_ aggravating."
+
+"Shut up!"
+
+"Well, you needn't take my head off."
+
+"You might be better-looking if I could."
+
+"Jerry! Cathy!" Mrs. Martin came in from the kitchen with a platter of
+scrambled eggs and bacon. "I'm glad your father left before he had to
+hear such bickering. He wouldn't stand for it, and neither will I.
+Either be civil to each other or don't speak."
+
+"Suits me," said Jerry. "I'll be tickled to death if Cathy stops
+ya-ka-ta-yaking."
+
+"He's just awful." Cathy's blue eyes appealed to her mother for
+sympathy.
+
+"Want me to wipe away your tears?" jibed her twin brother.
+
+"Eat your bacon and eggs. I trust and hope you'll both feel better
+when you've had your breakfast," said their mother. "I don't know
+what's gotten into you two lately. Always at each other and you used
+to be as close to each other as the two sides of a pair of shears."
+
+"Bet I always had the sharpest edge," mumbled Jerry.
+
+"That's enough from you, young man."
+
+When his mother spoke in that tone of voice, Jerry thought it best to
+keep still and tend to what he was doing. He took a large mouthful of
+scrambled eggs. They were good scrambled eggs. His mother sure knew
+how to fix them.
+
+Mrs. Martin looked at Andy's vacant chair. "Oh, dear, that child's not
+down yet. He dawdles so getting dressed."
+
+"He's coming," said Jerry, as they heard a thump that was Andy jumping
+down the last two steps of the front stairs.
+
+In came Andy, an imaginary pistol in each hand. "Bang!" he cried,
+shooting his mother. "Bang! Bang! You're all dead. Aren't there any
+pancakes?"
+
+"Come eat your cereal. I'm keeping your eggs and bacon hot for you
+out in the kitchen," said his mother. "Tuck your napkin under your
+chin. I don't want you to spill milk on your clean shirt. You should
+be thankful you have such a good breakfast. Plenty of children would
+be glad to have less."
+
+"I'm not plenty of children. I'm me." Andy looked up and met Jerry's
+accusing gaze with a wide smile. Andy never remembered yesterday's
+mischief. Each day was brand-new to Andy.
+
+"It will be harder than ever to get him to own up to what he did over
+at the Bullfinches'," thought Jerry.
+
+Andy knew the way to school and usually Jerry walked to school with
+boys his own age while Andy poked along alone or with one of his
+fellow kindergartners. But today when Andy had kissed his mother
+good-by and had come out the back door, Jerry was waiting for him.
+
+"I've got to hurry. I don't want to be late," said Andy, whose
+lateness had seldom worried him before.
+
+"We've got loads of time. Now, look here, Andy. I'm in a jam and
+you're the only one who can help me."
+
+Being talked to as his big brother's equal pleased Andy. "What you
+want me to do?"
+
+Jerry described vividly how unjustly Mr. Bullfinch had blamed him for
+getting into his house and breaking the Sousa record. "He's awfully
+down on me now," said Jerry. "Do you think it's fair for me to be
+blamed for something I didn't do?"
+
+"Just tell him somebody else must have done it," suggested Andy.
+
+"I did but he didn't believe me."
+
+"Then he's a bad, bad man."
+
+"It burns me up to be blamed for something I didn't do. You wouldn't
+like to be blamed for breaking a window if Tommy Jenks did it, would
+you, Andy?"
+
+"Tommy and I can't throw a ball hard enough to break a window."
+
+"I give up," cried Jerry. "I might have known you wouldn't lift a
+finger to get me out of trouble. Save your own skin, that's all you
+care about. And I was meaning to give you something nice when I get
+it," said Jerry, thinking of the candy he would receive from
+Bartlett's store.
+
+"What were you going to give me?"
+
+"Never you mind. Whatever it is, you won't get any."
+
+"Please, Jerry."
+
+"Nope."
+
+"I didn't mean to break that old record. It wasn't my fault. It
+slipped right out of my hand," remarked Andy.
+
+Jerry breathed a sigh of relief. Andy's resolution not to tell had
+begun to give. "I'll go right to the door with you if you'll fess up
+to Mr. Bullfinch what you did," he offered.
+
+Andy was not in the mood for an early morning call on Mr. Bullfinch.
+It took a lot of persuasion and the gift of two large rubber bands, an
+old campaign button, and two feet or so of good string before Andy let
+Jerry take him by the hand and lead him to the Bullfinch front door.
+
+"You ring the bell," said Jerry. He knew Andy liked to ring doorbells.
+
+Andy did not care to ring Mr. Bullfinch's bell just then. Jerry
+pressed it hard. He hoped Mr. Bullfinch would answer the bell in a
+hurry before Andy changed his mind about telling.
+
+"I'll tell him I'll help you pay for the record," said Jerry.
+
+"I don't want to pay money for an old broken record. It's no good,"
+said Andy, trying to pull away from Jerry.
+
+Just then Mr. Bullfinch opened the front door. He was wearing a dark
+blue bathrobe with a red plaid collar. He looked sleepy and not at all
+pleased to see his visitors.
+
+"Did you have to come so early?" he inquired.
+
+"It's almost time for school. Andy has something he wants to tell
+you."
+
+"No, I don't," said Andy.
+
+"Come on, Andy, you promised you'd tell."
+
+"I've changed my mind."
+
+"I wish you'd say whatever you came to say and be off. I find small
+boys hard to take before I have a cup of coffee," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+"I'll give you the first nickel I find rolling uphill. Or downhill
+either," Jerry promised Andy. "Go on, tell him." Jerry gave Andy a
+gentle poke in the back.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Andy looked up at Mr. Bullfinch. "You shouldn't leave your cellar
+window unlocked. A real burglar might have gotten in instead of me.
+And that record must have been cracked. I dropped it very easy,
+honest," said Andy in a rush of words. "It wasn't Jerry, it was me,"
+he added.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch stopped looking displeased. "Well," he said, not
+sounding at all cross with Andy, "I must say I admire a young fellow
+who will step right up and confess he's been into a little mischief."
+
+"Little mischief!" thought Jerry. Last night at the door Mr. Bullfinch
+had sounded as if he had considered getting into his house a real
+crime. Still, Jerry was glad Mr. Bullfinch was not being hard on Andy.
+
+"Good-by," said Andy.
+
+"Just a minute," said Mr. Bullfinch. "When something is broken it has
+to be paid for. I think you owe me something for that record, even if
+you think it was cracked."
+
+"I'll help pay for it," offered Jerry, without great enthusiasm.
+
+"I'm saving my money to buy a space helmet," said Andy.
+
+"Let's see," mused Mr. Bullfinch. "How are you boys at mowing lawns?"
+
+"Not bad," said Jerry, not remembering that his mother often remarked
+that it was like pulling teeth to get him to mow their lawn.
+
+"I can't mow but I can rake real good," said Andy.
+
+"Then if you'll come over after school this afternoon and take care of
+my lawn, we'll call it quits," said Mr. Bullfinch. "And I owe you an
+apology, Jerry, for misjudging you. Sorry I had the wrong Martin boy
+by the ear. I hope you'll bring back that little something you've been
+keeping over here."
+
+"I may at that," said Jerry.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch looked at Andy sternly. "It's wrong to go into a house
+when nobody's home. Don't you let me hear of your doing that again."
+
+"I won't," promised Andy, giving Mr. Bullfinch one of his beaming
+smiles that showed his dimple.
+
+"Come on, Andy, we can't stand here all day or we'll be late for
+school. I'll be seeing you," Jerry told Mr. Bullfinch, glad that they
+were friends again.
+
+Andy chattered happily on the way to school. Nothing got Andy down,
+Jerry thought, envying his carefree little brother. He should be
+feeling relieved about getting his guilt off his chest. But Andy had
+not seemed at all downhearted before. "Anyway, I got it out of him,"
+Jerry thought with satisfaction. Yet Jerry was grateful to Andy. He
+had known him to be far more stubborn.
+
+"Only nine more days before I get that candy from Bartlett's," Jerry
+thought. "And when I do, Andy not only gets the first piece; I don't
+care if he takes a whole handful."
+
+Jerry noticed that Andy almost had to run to keep up with him. He
+slowed down. Jerry felt like being very nice to Andy even if it meant
+that they would be late for school.
+
+
+
+
+8
+
+The Auction
+
+
+"School going all right, Jerry?" asked his father.
+
+Jerry was at the dining room table after dinner doing homework. He had
+a list of geography questions and was supposed to write down the
+answers. That meant either looking them up in the book or asking his
+father. Jerry's dad knew a good deal about geography, yet after
+answering a few questions he was likely to say, "How can you expect to
+learn if you don't find out for yourself?" He seemed to be in a good
+humor tonight. Jerry thought he might be good for answers to at least
+three questions of the ten.
+
+"I'm pretty sure I'm not failing anything at school," said Jerry.
+
+"Glad to hear it. I thought you've looked lately as if something were
+worrying you. If your arithmetic is giving you trouble again, maybe I
+can give you a little help."
+
+"Arithmetic's not so hard after you get the hang of it. I got a
+hundred in an arithmetic test day before yesterday."
+
+"Good for you. Keep up the good work. I expect you to be good college
+material, you know, and that's not too many years ahead."
+
+The words "college material" weighed Jerry's spirits. It seemed such a
+long stretch of school before he would be ready for college. And all
+that time he would be expected to do good work, good the rest of this
+term in order to be good in junior high, even better in junior high to
+be good in high school, and then you had to be a regular whiz on
+wheels in senior high to be good college material. So much excellence
+expected of him made Jerry feel tired.
+
+"Guess I'll do the rest of this tomorrow morning before school," he
+said.
+
+"Finish it now," ordered his father. "You know you never have time to
+do homework before school."
+
+"Could be a first time," said Jerry, but he bent over his paper again.
+"What are the chief products of Central America?" he asked.
+
+"That's rather a large question," said Mr. Martin. "Let's see."
+
+While his father was calling to mind the products of Central America,
+Jerry was thinking of the pleasant fact that there were only a few
+more days before he could settle the bill at Bartlett's store. And
+what a relief it would be to have that charge account off his mind!
+Jerry thought how surprised his father would be if he knew the cause
+of his improvement in arithmetic. Jerry had not realized at first
+that all that adding and subtracting when he made change was helping
+his arithmetic, but now he could tell that he could add and subtract
+much faster. After bringing his mother the wrong change just once and
+having to pretend to go back to the store when he went only as far as
+Mr. Bullfinch's, Jerry had learned that it paid to be accurate.
+
+"Bananas, coffee, and some silver," said Mr. Martin.
+
+With difficulty Jerry's mind came back to geography. But he had
+forgotten which question he had asked his father. "Is that the answer
+to number four?" he asked.
+
+"If you can't keep your mind on your work I'm not going to help you.
+Look up your own answers. How can you expect to learn if you don't
+find out for yourself?" Mr. Martin took the evening paper into the
+living room.
+
+Cathy, who was sitting at the other end of the dining room table
+reading, looked up and laughed. "You didn't get much out of Daddy this
+time, did you?"
+
+Jerry saw that the jacket of the book Cathy was reading had a picture
+of a girl and a boy walking together, with the boy carrying a lot of
+books. Hers as well as his, Jerry guessed. Catch him carrying a girl's
+books. "I suppose you have your homework all done," he snarled at
+Cathy.
+
+"Of course, bird-brain."
+
+"Bird-brain! If I have the brains of a bird you haven't any more than
+a--than a cockroach," said Jerry, which was the worst he could think
+of to say just then.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Boys aren't supposed to be so rude to girls. You're the limit. The
+utter, utter limit."
+
+"Who says so?"
+
+"I say so."
+
+"You!" Jerry packed so much scorn into the word that Cathy looked at
+him in surprise.
+
+"What's eating you lately?" she asked.
+
+Jerry gathered his books and papers together. If Cathy began being
+nice to him for a change he might find himself confiding to her. It
+had made him uneasy to be alone with her ever since he had started
+that charge account business. He would be safer now up in his own
+room.
+
+"I can't study here where you keep jawing at me," he complained.
+
+"Well, I like that. I hardly opened my mouth and now you--"
+
+"Like it or lump it," cried Jerry from the doorway. "Today is
+Thursday," thought Jerry, as he ran upstairs. "Monday will be the
+first. That will be the day. All I have to do is hold out till the
+first of the week."
+
+On Friday, Mrs. Martin for once did not need anything at the store. Of
+course she had a big order for Saturday morning. So much that she
+thought of taking the car, with Jerry going along to help with the
+carrying, but Jerry said he could manage perfectly well with his cart.
+
+"No sense wasting gas when you have me to go to the store for you," he
+said.
+
+"Are you sure you're feeling all right?" asked his mother. "I can't
+think what has gotten in to you to be so obliging. But it's nice to
+have a boy so willing to run errands," she said, giving Jerry the
+grocery list. "Sure you can manage?"
+
+Jerry was sure.
+
+When he stopped by at the Bullfinches' on his way back from the
+store--he had to get change from a twenty this time--Mr. Bullfinch was
+getting ready to go to an auction out in Rockville.
+
+"How'd you like to come with me?" he invited Jerry. Mr. Bullfinch had
+been especially cordial to him lately as if to make up for having
+suspected him of housebreaking. "If you've never been to an auction
+you might find it interesting."
+
+Jerry liked the idea. He said he would be right back as soon as he
+took the groceries home and asked his mother if he could go.
+
+"Fine. Hope you can go. I'll be glad of your company," said Mr.
+Bullfinch.
+
+Ten minutes later Jerry and Mr. Bullfinch were on their way to
+Rockville. Jerry had never ridden in Mr. Bullfinch's car before. It
+was not the car that was jerky, Jerry discovered, but Mr. Bullfinch.
+Still, he was a careful driver except when he got to talking. Then he
+seemed to forget his was not the only car on the road and the other
+cars honked at him. Yet Mr. Bullfinch was good at missing the other
+cars. At the very edge of collision he was a marvelous driver. Jerry
+held on to the door pull most of the time.
+
+It was not a long drive to Rockville. They made it by five after ten,
+Jerry noticed by a clock over a bank near where Mr. Bullfinch parked
+the car.
+
+"This is one of the smaller auction houses," explained Mr. Bullfinch,
+as he led the way into a place that looked to Jerry like a secondhand
+furniture store. "But sometimes the most interesting items are put up
+at small auctions."
+
+Jerry jingled the small change in his pocket. His entire wealth at the
+moment was forty-seven cents, hardly enough to buy either a usual or
+unusual item. He noticed that Mr. Bullfinch looked less calm and
+dignified than usual. There was a gleam of excitement in his eyes, an
+intensity in his voice. Jerry could tell that Mr. Bullfinch felt the
+same about auctions as Jerry did about going to baseball games out at
+Griffith Stadium.
+
+Folding chairs had been set up in the middle of the big room where the
+auction was being held. Furniture and stuff was jammed all around,
+even at the back of the platform where the auctioneer stood. He was a
+thick-set, big-mouthed man wearing a blue and red plaid sport shirt.
+
+"That's Jim Bean. He always puts on a good show," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+As Mr. Bullfinch and Jerry took seats in the back row, the auctioneer
+was holding up a table lamp.
+
+"Now here is something really beautiful," he was saying in a slightly
+hoarse yet persuasive voice. "This lamp has a base of real Chinese
+porcelain. Old Chinese porcelain and that's the most valuable, as all
+of you here know. Probably should be in a museum. Shade's a bit worn
+but it's easy enough to get one of those. Now I hope I'm going to hear
+a starting bid of ten for this exquisite piece of antique Chinese
+porcelain. Worth every cent of fifty or more but I'm willing to start
+it at ten."
+
+"One dollar," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+"That bid," said the auctioneer, "was too low for me to hear."
+
+"Two," snapped a lady in the front row.
+
+A man two seats to the left of Jerry held up a finger.
+
+"Three I'm bid. Who will make it five?" said Mr. Bean.
+
+"Three-fifty," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+"Come, come," said Mr. Bean, "I can't accept bids of peanuts.
+Three-fifty I'm offered. We're just starting, folks. Do I hear five?"
+
+Jerry could not tell for sure but somebody in the front row must have
+indicated a bid of five, for now Mr. Bean was droning, "Five I have.
+Who will make it ten? Worth many times more. Five I have for this
+museum piece. Five I have."
+
+The lamp was going to be sold for five, Jerry thought, when Mr.
+Bullfinch sat up straight and snapped, "Six!" His eyes shone. He was
+really enjoying himself.
+
+It was like a game, Jerry thought, and wished he dared risk a bid.
+Better not, he decided, for there was always the chance that nobody
+would bid higher and he would be stuck with something he did not want
+and could not pay for. Better be on the safe side and let Mr.
+Bullfinch do the bidding. That was almost as much fun as doing it
+himself.
+
+The lamp was finally sold to the lady in the front row who had first
+bid against Mr. Bullfinch. Sold to her for nine dollars, which Mr.
+Bean said was giving it away.
+
+"Glad I didn't get it. We already have too many lamps," Mr. Bullfinch
+said in a low voice to Jerry, which proved that he had been bidding
+for the sport of it.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch did not open his mouth when the next few items were
+sold. After starting the ball rolling he was content to let others
+keep it rolling for a while. Besides, a bed, two French chairs, and a
+worn oriental rug were not unusual enough to interest him. Such items
+came up, he explained to Jerry, at nearly every auction held in
+Washington or its suburbs. But when Mr. Bean was handed a large cage
+with a large bird in it by one of his helpers, Mr. Bullfinch sat up
+straight on the edge of his chair again.
+
+"Never knew a parrot to be auctioned off before," he told Jerry.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Diplomat leaving the country says, 'Sell everything,' and that
+included this handsome bird. Speaks Spanish, they tell me. Wish Polly
+would oblige us by saying something in Spanish, but he--I understand
+it's a male--is too shy to speak before strangers. He's been well
+taken care of. Wonderful gloss to his feathers," praised Mr. Bean.
+"Beautiful color. Give an accent to any décor, modern or traditional,
+besides being a wonderful pet. Now who is going to be the lucky owner
+of this gorgeous bird?"
+
+Jerry was surprised that Mr. Bullfinch did not begin the bidding,
+which started at a disgusting low of fifty cents. Mr. Bullfinch did
+not speak until the bidding rose to three dollars. Then, "Five
+dollars," he said in a firm voice that dared anybody to bid higher.
+Since nobody did, the parrot was Mr. Bullfinch's for five dollars.
+
+"Guess I could have had it for four," Mr. Bullfinch said to Jerry.
+"Thought it would go to seven."
+
+Jerry was very glad that Mr. Bullfinch's had been the winning bid. It
+would be interesting to have a Spanish-speaking parrot next door,
+though Jerry would have bid for the parrot himself if he had had the
+money. The only pet the Martin family had was Bibsy. "Wish we had a
+parrot," thought Jerry.
+
+Jerry rather lost interest in the auction after the high spot of
+selling the parrot. Mr. Bullfinch put in a bid once in a while but let
+his bid be topped.
+
+Since Mr. Bullfinch already had a parrot cage, he could keep one cage
+in the house and the other out in the yard, Jerry was thinking, as a
+mahogany sewing table was lifted to the auctioneer's platform. Neither
+Jerry nor Mr. Bullfinch was interested in mahogany sewing tables.
+Jerry's eyes wandered. He hardly heard Mr. Bean praise the sewing
+table and accept the first bid. Jerry turned his head and looked
+around and there was Bill Ellis, a classmate of Jerry's in the sixth.
+The man beside him was his father. Jerry had seen him enough times to
+recognize him.
+
+Bill saw Jerry and grinned and Jerry put up a hand in greeting.
+
+"Sold for three dollars to the young man in the red jacket in the back
+row," said the auctioneer.
+
+Horrified, Jerry realized that his raised arm had been interpreted as
+a bid and that he had just bought a mahogany sewing table. "I don't
+want it. It was a mistake," he wanted to say, but before he could get
+the words out, Mr. Bean was extolling the beauties of a large oil
+painting. Jerry had missed his chance to speak up.
+
+"Be a nice present for your mother," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+Jerry was sunk in despair. He thought that if you bought something at
+an auction you had to keep it. What was he going to do when he and Mr.
+Bullfinch went up to the desk near the door where you paid and what
+you had bought was brought out to you?
+
+"Forty-seven cents isn't any three dollars," thought Jerry dismally.
+Nor did he have any more at home.
+
+Suddenly Jerry thought of a place where there was plenty of ready
+money. In Mr. Bullfinch's grandfather clock. Suppose he told the man
+at the desk that he did not have enough money on him but would be
+right back with some. Then he could borrow enough to pay for the
+sewing table--minus forty-seven cents. Of course it was Mr. Bartlett's
+money, not his, but as soon as he got back from paying for the sewing
+table Jerry could go around the neighborhood and get a lawn or two to
+mow and get money to pay back to Mr. Bartlett. But suppose nobody
+wanted a lawn mowed? And how would he get back and forth between
+Rockville and Washington? On a bus, maybe.
+
+"I believe I've had about enough of this," said Mr. Bullfinch, and he
+led the way to the desk where the paying for and delivery of goods
+took place.
+
+Jerry did a lot of thinking as he followed Mr. Bullfinch. He
+remembered reading a story about a man who worked in a bank and took
+money, expecting to pay it back, only he couldn't. If Jerry borrowed
+some of Mr. Bartlett's money, that wouldn't be much different from
+what the man in the bank did. And he had gone to jail.
+
+"Anyway, it wouldn't be honest," thought Jerry, and knew he couldn't
+get money to pay for the sewing table that way. What the man at the
+desk would say to him when he had to confess he couldn't pay, Jerry
+dreaded to find out.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch paid for his parrot. Jerry moved up toward the desk. He
+was pale behind his freckles. He could see a man bringing over the
+mahogany sewing table. Just then, somebody touched Jerry's arm.
+
+"I'll give you a dollar more than you paid for that sewing table,"
+said a woman in a red hat.
+
+Color rushed back into Jerry's face. He beamed at the woman. "Pay the
+man three dollars and you can have it," he said.
+
+On their way out to the car--and Mr. Bullfinch very kindly let Jerry
+carry the cage with the parrot in it--Mr. Bullfinch explained that it
+would have been quite all right for Jerry to have made a dollar on the
+sewing table. "If somebody offers you more than you have paid it's all
+right to take it. But what made you decide you didn't want the little
+sewing table?"
+
+"My mother has a sewing table," said Jerry.
+
+"Good thing then you got rid of it," said Mr. Bullfinch. "Sometimes
+I'm not so lucky at getting rid of something I've bought and don't
+need. I get a bit carried away when I get to bidding."
+
+Mr. Bullfinch looked calm and dignified again, but Jerry remembered
+how thrilled he had looked at the auction.
+
+"Did you enjoy going to an auction?" asked Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+"I enjoyed most of it," said Jerry. But nobody would ever know, he
+thought, slightly swinging the heavy cage, how relieved he had been to
+get rid of that mahogany sewing table. He rather wished now, though,
+that he had accepted that extra dollar.
+
+
+
+
+9
+
+As Good as a Watchdog
+
+
+It was time for lunch when Jerry got back from the auction. He was
+eating his second big waffle and his fourth sausage--the Martins
+always had an especially good lunch on Saturdays since it was the one
+weekday they were all home to lunch--when there was a knock at the
+back door.
+
+Mr. Martin went to the door, and the family heard him say cordially,
+"Come right in."
+
+Into the dining room came Mr. Bullfinch, parrot cage in hand. The
+parrot was head-down, holding onto the perch with his feet.
+
+"He speaks Spanish," Jerry said, although he had already informed his
+family of that fact. "Make him say something in Spanish, Mr.
+Bullfinch."
+
+Mr. Bullfinch refused to sit down but he did put the parrot cage on a
+chair. "Say '_Buenos días_,'" he urged the parrot. "That is 'Good day'
+or 'How do you do' in Spanish," he explained. But the parrot said
+nothing in any language.
+
+By this time Jerry and Andy were kneeling on the floor by the cage.
+"Pretty Polly. Polly want a cracker?" crooned Andy.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"He's not a she, he's a he," said Jerry.
+
+"Don't put your finger near the cage. He might bite," Mrs. Martin
+warned Andy.
+
+"He wouldn't bite _me_. Parrots like me," said Andy.
+
+"Where did you ever get acquainted with a parrot?" asked Cathy, who
+had come over to admire the big green bird.
+
+"Somewheres."
+
+"You just dreamed you did." Cathy gave her small brother a hug,
+against which he pretended to struggle. He bumped into the cage and
+the parrot gave a loud squawk.
+
+"Look out," cried Mrs. Martin.
+
+"I've come to ask a big favor," said Mr. Bullfinch in his polite
+voice. "I didn't realize until I got home that my wife is violently
+allergic to parrots. She had a severe sneezing fit when it had not
+been in the house more than five minutes. So, I'll have to dispose of
+the bird. Fine specimen it is, too. Well, it's too late now to get a
+'for sale' notice in the paper before Monday, and if I keep the bird
+in the house until then my wife might have an asthma attack. Would it
+be too much of an imposition for me to ask you to keep the parrot over
+here until Monday?" he asked.
+
+"Not at all," said Mr. Martin heartily.
+
+"I'm not sure we could trust Bibsy to let the parrot alone. You know
+how it is with birds and cats, Mr. Bullfinch," said Mrs. Martin.
+
+"Say, do you think any cat could get the best of a bird with a beak on
+him like that?" cried Jerry. "Anyway, Bibsy is good about leaving
+birds alone. You know she is. Besides, having a parrot who can speak
+Spanish in the house will teach us a little Spanish. I heard you say
+that the reason people in the United States are so poor at speaking
+foreign languages is because they don't start young enough to learn
+one. Here's our chance."
+
+"The amount of Spanish you'd learn from a parrot over a week end won't
+be likely to make you very proficient in the language," said Mrs.
+Martin. Then she turned to Mr. Bullfinch and told him she would be
+glad to keep the parrot until Monday. "But only till Monday," she
+said, looking at Jerry.
+
+After Mr. Bullfinch had expressed his thanks and left, all three of
+the Martin children begged their mother to buy the parrot from Mr.
+Bullfinch. Jerry rashly promised all his allowance for May. Cathy
+wouldn't go as far as that but she would spare a dollar. And Andy
+trotted off for his piggy bank to contribute his pennies.
+
+"I better run after Mr. Bullfinch and tell him he needn't phone in
+that ad for the newspaper," said Jerry.
+
+"You'll do no such thing," said his mother. "I agreed to keep the
+parrot over the week end. I meant over the week end and no longer."
+
+When their mother spoke in that tone of voice, her children had
+learned it was no use to argue.
+
+"I've always wanted a parrot for a pet and here is a good chance to
+get one and you turn it down," grumbled Jerry.
+
+"What's the parrot's name?" asked Mr. Martin.
+
+Jerry didn't know. "Can you ask him what his name is in Spanish?" he
+asked his father.
+
+Mr. Martin didn't think that would do much good but he could and did
+ask the parrot in Spanish what his name was.
+
+There was no response from the parrot.
+
+"Guess you'll have to give him a name," said Mr. Martin.
+
+"Let's call him Pete," suggested Andy.
+
+"Pete's not a Spanish name. He ought to have a Spanish name," said
+Cathy.
+
+"I think Pedro's the Spanish for Pete," said Jerry, remembering a
+story he had read about a Spanish donkey.
+
+They agreed on Pedro. They all addressed the parrot by name but he
+only glared at them with his beady eyes and kept silent.
+
+"Maybe he's dumb," said Andy.
+
+"Maybe he's too young to know how to talk," said Cathy.
+
+"He's not that young," said Jerry.
+
+They were eating dessert--pineapple upside-down cake--when the parrot
+beat his wings and said in a strong, hoarse voice, "_Caramba!_"
+
+"What does that mean?" Jerry asked his father.
+
+"It's a Spanish word that they use the same way we say 'Gosh!'"
+
+"_Caramba!_" repeated Jerry.
+
+"_Caramba!_" Andy tried to say, only it came out more like
+"_Carimba!_" The way he said it made it sound like a swear word.
+
+"Oh, dear, I hope that bird won't teach the children any bad
+language," said Mrs. Martin.
+
+"I somehow doubt if he'll teach them to swear in Spanish over the week
+end," said Mr. Martin, with a twinkle in his eye.
+
+Then there began an argument about where the parrot's cage should be
+hung. Cathy said it should be in her room because the parrot's color
+would go so well with her bedspread and curtains. Jerry said that
+naturally the cage should be in his room. He had known the parrot
+longest, hadn't he?
+
+"He likes me best. I know he does," declared Andy. "I want him to
+sleep with me."
+
+"Maybe the recreation room would be more appropriate," suggested Mr.
+Martin.
+
+Mrs. Martin knew where there was a big hook which could be screwed in
+over one of the windows. "You can spend as much time down there with
+him as you want to," she told the children.
+
+"If we turn the TV on good and loud, that might teach him a little
+English," said Jerry. "We teach him English. He teaches us Spanish."
+
+"Fair enough," said Mr. Martin.
+
+Later in the afternoon Jerry was taking his time about mowing the
+lawn, and wishing there was stuff to put on grass to make it stop
+growing instead of all that fertilizer his father put on to make it
+grow, when his mother called and asked him to run to the store for a
+package of raisins. She wanted to make raisin sauce for the ham they
+were having for dinner that night.
+
+Jerry never minded having to stop mowing the lawn. Now if his father
+had a power mower that would be different. But Jerry's father refused
+to buy a power mower until he decided that Jerry was old enough to run
+it. In Jerry's opinion, he was old enough now. He threw down the
+despised hand lawn mower and started for the store, walking, not
+taking his bike this time. His mother was in no immediate hurry for
+the raisins and Jerry was certainly in no hurry to finish mowing the
+lawn.
+
+This probably would be his last trip to the store before the happy
+time of going to pay the bill on Monday, Jerry thought, making a
+slight detour in order to jump two low hedges in a neighbor's yard.
+Over without touching, he was pleased to note. May Day would mean the
+end of all that rigmarole of the secret charge account. And what a
+relief that would be! In his thoughts Jerry had shied away from
+applying the word deceit to his charging groceries and keeping Mr.
+Bartlett's money over at the Bullfinches', but he had not been able to
+get away from an uneasy feeling about what he had been doing. It was
+his nature to be open and aboveboard. The past month had been a
+strain.
+
+"Now it's all over but the payoff," thought Jerry, waiting for Mr.
+Bartlett to make out the grocery slip. The candy in the showcase next
+to the cash register looked luscious. Jerry wondered how many pieces
+there were in a half pound and thought of asking but decided against
+it. Jerry was still hopeful that Mr. Bartlett would at least make it a
+heavy half pound when the bill was paid.
+
+This time Jerry had to get only change for half a dollar from the
+grandfather clock. He stopped to visit a few minutes with Mr.
+Bullfinch, who had a fireplace fire burning in his den.
+
+"Had a man here last week to give the furnace its summer hookup," said
+Mr. Bullfinch. "Should have had more sense. I forgot that it's
+possible to half roast and half freeze on the same day. This morning
+felt like June and this afternoon's more like March. That's Washington
+spring weather for you."
+
+Jerry agreed that the weather had turned chilly. He watched the flames
+lick the charcoal briquets in the fireplace.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch had a grate shaped like a cradle in his fireplace and
+burned charcoal or coal instead of logs. It would be a wonderful fire
+for a cook-out, Jerry thought. Only he guessed that if you cooked a
+meal over an open fire indoors, it should be called a cook-in.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch inquired after the parrot's health, and Jerry said that
+as far as he could tell, it was good. Jerry said he had wheeled the
+television set over so the parrot could watch the ball game.
+
+"I would have been looking at it, too, if I hadn't had to mow the lawn
+and then go to the store."
+
+"I can see that you are a busy lad," sympathized Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+"I probably won't be over here so often after Monday," said Jerry,
+after replacing the tobacco pouch in the grandfather clock.
+
+"That so? We shall miss having you run in every day or so. Hope you
+won't be too much of a stranger."
+
+Mr. Bullfinch did not ask why Jerry's visits would be less frequent
+after Monday. That was one of the nice things about Mr. Bullfinch, his
+showing no curiosity about Jerry's affairs. Jerry was so grateful to
+him for not asking embarrassing questions that he found it hard not to
+break down and tell him all about the charge account. But that was a
+temptation Jerry had already successfully resisted several times and
+he now did again.
+
+"After I get the candy Monday I'll give him some and tell him all
+about it," Jerry vowed.
+
+Jerry was pleased to find his father finishing mowing the lawn.
+
+"At the rate you were going I thought you might not get it done before
+dark," his father greeted him.
+
+That was the way parents were. Instead of being grateful for what you
+had done, they bawled you out for not finishing the last bit. "I would
+have done it," said Jerry.
+
+Jerry raked up the grass clippings before he took the box of raisins
+in to his mother. "Where's Cathy?" he asked.
+
+"I think she's down looking at TV."
+
+Jerry ran down to the recreation room. The TV had been turned off.
+Cathy was standing close to Pedro's cage.
+
+"Cathy. Cathy. Cathy," she repeated. "Say Cathy."
+
+Jerry was indignant. While he had been hard at work on the lawn and
+then running to the store, Cathy had been trying to teach the parrot
+to say her name.
+
+"You quit that," ordered Jerry.
+
+"I'd like to know why."
+
+Jerry did not come right out and say that he wanted Pedro to say _his_
+name first.
+
+"Seems pretty conceited for you to think your name is the most
+important word in the English language," he said. "Pretty conceited.
+Naturally Pedro should learn the most important words first."
+
+"What _is_ the most important word in the English language?" asked
+Cathy.
+
+"That depends."
+
+"Depends on what?"
+
+"If you could answer as many questions as you can ask, you'd be more
+than half bright."
+
+"Jerry Martin, are you calling me a moron? You know I get better
+grades in school than you do."
+
+"Who called you a moron?"
+
+"You did."
+
+"I did not. I didn't say how much more than half bright you'd be if
+you could answer as many questions as you ask."
+
+"You're--you're impossible."
+
+Jerry turned the television on. As a singing commercial came on, the
+parrot laughed a raucous laugh.
+
+"Say, he may not know how to speak English but that parrot's got
+sense," said Jerry admiringly.
+
+A door above opened. "Jerry," called his mother from upstairs, "you
+come right up here and get that snake off the hall table."
+
+"It's only a little green snake I found when I was cutting the grass,"
+grumbled Jerry. "I was going to catch flies for it. It's a perfectly
+harmless snake."
+
+"Snakes--ugh!" said Cathy.
+
+"Say, what's got into you? I've seen you let a little green garter
+snake wind around your wrist like a bracelet."
+
+"I did, didn't I?" Cathy was suddenly on Jerry's level again. Then she
+looked up at her reflection in a mirror over the television set and
+smoothed her hair at the sides. "I used to do a lot of silly things
+when I was young," she said.
+
+She seemed to be insinuating that she was more grownup than Jerry,
+even though they were twins. Jerry was furious with her. He was angry
+because they were no longer the companions they used to be, though he
+did not realize it. He missed the old Cathy, who reappeared only now
+and then. They were so seldom really together nowadays and it had not
+been long ago that they had been two against anything or anybody which
+threatened one of them.
+
+"I wouldn't be a girl for a million dollars," he said. "Little pats of
+powder, Little daubs of paint, Make a little girly Look like what she
+ain't," he quoted.
+
+"Why Jerry Martin, I wouldn't think of using rouge. Mummy wouldn't let
+me if I wanted to."
+
+"Cathy," called her mother from upstairs. "Come set the table for
+dinner."
+
+Cathy, with one of her movie-queen looks, sailed past Jerry and went
+upstairs.
+
+"Girls are nuts," Jerry said.
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed Pedro.
+
+"You _are_ a smart bird," said Jerry and tried in vain to teach the
+parrot to say "Jerry." Pedro said "_Caramba_" again and a few Spanish
+words Jerry did not understand, but that was all.
+
+He certainly was a handsome bird. Jerry looked at him with affection.
+"Give you time and you'll learn to speak English," said Jerry. And,
+"Gosh, I wish you really belonged to me." Then, having been called
+twice, Jerry went up to dinner.
+
+Jerry went to the neighborhood movie that night with his mother and
+Cathy, so he was later getting to bed than usual. He was dropping off
+to sleep when he heard what he thought was a car backfiring outside.
+Then, at the very edge of sleep again, Jerry smelled smoke. He rushed
+to the window. By moonlight he could see the Bullfinch house almost as
+plain as day. There was smoke coming out of the chimney. There was
+also smoke rising from the roof.
+
+"Fire!" bawled Jerry. "Fire!" he shouted all the way down the stairs.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"The Bullfinch house is on fire!" he yelled at the door of the living
+room where his father and mother were sitting.
+
+"What?" cried his father.
+
+"Is this one of your ideas of a joke?" asked his mother.
+
+Jerry did not stop. The front door slammed behind him. "Fire!" he kept
+shouting all the way to the Bullfinch house, as if a phonograph needle
+had been stuck at that word in a record.
+
+"I've got to get that grocery money out of there. I've got to," Jerry
+thought, so excited and driven that he did not know he was shivering
+with cold.
+
+Jerry rang the Bullfinch doorbell hard with one hand while he pounded
+on the door with the other.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch came to the door. He looked only a little excited.
+
+"Your house is on fire!" cried Jerry.
+
+"I know. I know. I've called the fire department," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+"Won't you come in?" he asked politely, as if it were not strange to
+invite a person to come in a burning house.
+
+Jerry was glad to get Mr. Bartlett's money safe in two pockets of his
+pajamas. There was too much of it for one.
+
+"Want me to help carry out things?" he asked Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+Mrs. Bullfinch was fluttering about, wondering what should be saved
+first, when sirens screeched and fire engines arrived on the scene.
+
+By this time a small crowd had gathered to watch the fire. Jerry's
+mother brought out a jacket for him to put on over his pajamas. He was
+glad of its warmth and also because he could transfer Mr. Bartlett's
+money into larger pockets where bulges would not be so conspicuous.
+
+It was not much of a fire. It was soon out. All that had burned was
+part of the eaves near the chimney. Jerry heard his father ask Mr.
+Bullfinch if he knew how the fire had started. And Mr. Bullfinch
+seemed slightly embarrassed as he explained what he thought must have
+happened.
+
+"I have only my own carelessness to blame," said Mr. Bullfinch. "You
+see, I burn charcoal in the fireplace in my den. I keep a big sack of
+charcoal briquets out in the garage. Well, soon after I put fresh
+charcoal on the fire--I often read late you know--there was a sharp
+series of bangs and I realized what had happened."
+
+Then all that banging hadn't been a car backfiring, thought Jerry.
+
+"There is a shelf in the garage over the sack of charcoal," Mr.
+Bullfinch continued, "and there was a box of cartridges on the shelf.
+It must be that a few cartridges spilled into the charcoal and they
+went off when I put them on the fire. Lucky they fired up the chimney
+instead of in the room. Loosened a few bricks in the chimney and
+burned a bit of the eaves. No great damage, I'm thankful to say."
+
+"That's the most unusual cause of a fire I ever heard of," said Mr.
+Martin.
+
+"I don't want the fire to be out so soon," mourned Andy, who had been
+waked up to come to the fire.
+
+"I'd better get that child to bed," said Mr. Martin.
+
+Jerry would have followed his father but Mr. Bullfinch wanted to thank
+him for coming over to rescue them, even though they had not needed to
+be rescued. "But if I hadn't still been up you might have saved our
+lives," he told Jerry. Then he told Jerry something else that filled
+Jerry's heart with joy. Jerry was so grateful he could hardly speak.
+
+Jerry kept his cause of gratitude to himself until the family were in
+the kitchen having a bite to eat.
+
+"Mr. Bullfinch has given Pedro to me," he said, putting a thick layer
+of grape marmalade and peanut butter on a slice of bread. "A
+five-dollar parrot and he's worth much more than that and Mr.
+Bullfinch gave him to me for almost saving his life."
+
+"Oh, no!" said Mrs. Martin.
+
+"Fire!" bawled a loud hoarse voice from the cellar.
+
+"It's Pedro. He's said his first English word." Jerry was beaming with
+pride. "He'll be as good as a watchdog. Don't miners sometimes take
+parrots into mines with them to warn them against poisonous fumes?"
+
+"A canary I've heard of--not a parrot," said Mr. Martin. "And we're
+really in very little danger from poisonous fumes. But I guess we
+can't risk offending a neighbor by refusing a gift."
+
+"Taking care of a parrot can be a lot of work," said Mrs. Martin.
+
+"I'll help," offered Cathy. And Jerry was grateful to her.
+
+"Fire!" the parrot kept bawling. "Fire!"
+
+"Go down and put something over his cage or we'll not get any sleep,"
+Jerry's mother told him. "Yes, you can keep him. I might have known
+when I saw that parrot come into the house that he would stay."
+
+As Jerry galloped down the stairs to the recreation room with a scarf
+to put over Pedro's cage, he wondered if he would have hurried quite
+as fast over to the Bullfinch house if it had not been for the money
+in the grandfather clock. He had slipped in and put it back there
+before coming home. Fire was not likely to strike twice in the same
+house, he had thought.
+
+Pedro was making gentle, clucking noises.
+
+"Good night, old bird," said Jerry, after he had put the scarf over
+the cage. "I wonder if parrots eat candy," he thought on his way
+upstairs to bed. "When I get that candy from Mr. Bartlett tomorrow I'm
+going to try Pedro on a piece of a lime mint. They're almost the same
+color as the feathers near his throat."
+
+Joy of ownership of a handsome green parrot made Jerry's steps light
+on the stairs. He went to bed by moonlight. There seemed to be a glow
+on everything.
+
+
+
+
+10
+
+May Day
+
+
+"How nice that today is pleasant, so you can have your May Day
+exercises outdoors," Mrs. Martin said, as she bustled about getting
+her children's breakfast on the table.
+
+"Did you finish hemming my dress?" asked Cathy. She was to be crowned
+May Queen and was so worried about looking exactly right that she
+could hardly eat her breakfast.
+
+"It's all packed in a suit box," said Mrs. Martin. "I put in Andy's
+costume under it. Be surer of getting there if you carry it."
+
+"Do I have to wear that silly sash?" Andy was to help wind the Maypole
+and was to wear yellow cambric shorts, a white blouse, and a yellow
+sash around his middle.
+
+"You must dress as your teacher told you to," said his mother. "Be
+careful with that glass of milk, Andy."
+
+Jerry was thankful that his only part in the May Day festival was to
+help seat the parents. And that all he had to wear different from
+usual was an armband. Jerry's mind was not on the May Day exercises.
+He had something far more important to think about. Today was the day
+he had so long looked forward to. Today he would pay the bill at
+Bartlett's store. The store wouldn't be open early enough so he could
+tend to it before school, but the minute he could get away from the
+May Day exercises that afternoon he would race to Mr. Bullfinch's, get
+the money from the grandfather clock, and go pay the bill. Thinking of
+the candy that would then be presented to him made Jerry grin.
+
+"You're looking mighty pleased with yourself this morning, Jerry,"
+said his mother, passing him the bacon.
+
+"Who? Me? It's Cathy who's the big shot today. Hi, Queenie! You
+feeling squeamy?" he teased his sister. "Won't you look like
+something--all dressed up like a circus horse, with a tinfoil crown on
+your head? Yes, your majesty. No, your majesty. After this you'll
+expect everybody to bow down to you. Not me. I'm not forgetting this
+is a democracy."
+
+"All I hope is that you won't do anything at the exercises that will
+disgrace the family," said Cathy.
+
+"Call me a disgrace to the family, do you? Well, I like that."
+
+"There isn't time for you two to squabble. You should be leaving for
+school in less than five minutes," said Mrs. Martin.
+
+"I won't say a word if Cathy'll leave me alone," said Jerry.
+
+"I leave you alone! Why it was you who started--"
+
+"I don't care who started what. It's finished," said Mrs. Martin with
+firmness.
+
+Jerry gave Cathy a mocking smile. He was really proud that she had
+been chosen May Queen. He would never let on to her all the votes he
+had rounded up for her. Not Jerry. He kept it a dark secret that he
+thought her the prettiest girl in their class. No need of making her
+more stuck on her looks than she already was.
+
+Lessons at school were brief that day. By ten-thirty, four boys from
+the sixth grade were helping the custodian put up the Maypole. Then
+there were two chairs from the principal's office to be draped with
+gold-colored cambric, throne chairs for the King and Queen. As soon as
+lunch period was over, Jerry helped carry chairs from the cafeteria
+out to the yard, where they were arranged in rows facing the throne.
+The exercises were to begin at one, but a few parents came before all
+the chairs were in place.
+
+A phonograph on a table behind a tree furnished music for winding the
+Maypole. Jerry, standing with his classmates behind the chairs--there
+were chairs only for the parents--saw that Andy looked very earnest
+and a little scared. He got to going the wrong way once but was
+quickly turned around by his kindergarten teacher. Jerry was glad for
+Andy's sake when the Maypole dance was over.
+
+Now came the crowning of the King and Queen. Cathy wore a white
+billowy dress and her mother's pearl necklace. She was flushed and her
+eyes shone.
+
+"What a little charmer she will be in a few years," Jerry heard one of
+the mothers say.
+
+"Yeah! A snake charmer," Jerry thought. He knew though that that was
+not the kind of charmer meant. Jerry did not want Cathy to charm
+anybody, especially boys. It made him mad if he saw her look moony at
+a boy. "Mush" was what Jerry called a certain way some of the girls
+and boys looked at each other. It was definitely not for him.
+
+Jerry managed to slip away before the exercises were quite over. A
+spring song by the combined fourth and fifth grades rang in his ears
+as he left the schoolyard. Everybody would be free to go home at the
+end of the song, but Jerry wanted to get a head start. He wanted to
+surprise the family with the box of candy the minute they got home.
+
+He ran all the way to the Bullfinches'. "In an awful hurry. See you
+later," he said, rushing in and grabbing the tobacco pouch of money
+from the grandfather clock. Then he was off for the store, running as
+if chased.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Mr. Bartlett, for once, was alone in the store.
+
+"I came to pay the bill," gasped Jerry, and he emptied the contents of
+the tobacco pouch on the counter.
+
+"Bring the bill with you?" asked Mr. Bartlett.
+
+What bill? Jerry did not know anything about a bill. But he had saved
+all the grocery slips. He had gone over to the Bullfinches' the
+night before and added and added. He was sure the money was the right
+amount.
+
+Mr. Bartlett looked up the amount due in a ledger. He was a bit grumpy
+about having to count so much chicken feed, as he called it, as he
+counted the change. "It's all here," he said finally.
+
+For an awful moment Jerry was afraid he was not going to get a bonus
+for paying the bill. It was with enormous relief that he saw Mr.
+Bartlett reach for a half-pound pasteboard box.
+
+"It was a fair-sized bill and I'll give you a full half pound," said
+Mr. Bartlett. "Anything you prefer?"
+
+Jerry said he would like a few pink and green mints. With pleasure he
+watched Mr. Bartlett arrange a row of varicolored mints and fill up
+the rest of the box with chocolates--so full that the cover would
+hardly go down.
+
+Jerry thanked Mr. Bartlett with great heartiness. Fond though he was
+of candy, Jerry didn't take even as much as a taste on the way home.
+He would show it to his mother and Cathy and Andy but he would save it
+untouched until his father got home from work.
+
+"I wanted to prove to you that having a charge account pays off," he
+would tell his father, offering him the open box, after Andy had had
+the first piece--Jerry remembered that Andy was to have the first
+piece. "Where else can you get something for nothing except by
+charging your groceries at Bartlett's store?" That was what Jerry
+would say to his father. Or something else that might occur to him
+later. His father would be sure to see the advantage of charging
+groceries as soon as he cast an eye on all that free candy.
+
+Jerry whistled gaily most of the way back from the store. "Bet you
+can't guess what I have," he cried, as he opened the kitchen door and
+saw his mother and Cathy sitting at the kitchen table. Further
+cheerful words died in his throat when he saw that both his mother and
+Cathy had been crying.
+
+"What's the matter?" Could something terrible have happened to his
+father? Or to Andy? What awful thing could make his mother and Cathy
+look so sad? There were envelopes and letters on the table. His mother
+had been opening her mail. The bad news must have come in a letter,
+then.
+
+"Is Grandma Martin sick again?" Jerry asked.
+
+His mother sobbed, and Jerry couldn't remember ever seeing his mother
+cry. "How could you, Jerry? How could you do such a dreadful thing?"
+
+"He didn't do it. I know he didn't to it!" cried Cathy. "Tell her you
+didn't do it, Jerry. Tell her it must be a mistake."
+
+"To think that a son of mine would be a thief!" said Jerry's mother.
+And the face she turned toward him was full of hurt and
+disappointment. It tore Jerry inside.
+
+"I haven't done anything. Anything wrong," he said.
+
+"You stand there and tell me that you haven't been charging groceries
+at Bartlett's store for a month?"
+
+"Sure I did but--"
+
+"Oh, Jerry!" Cathy burst into tears.
+
+"What did you do with the money?" demanded Jerry's mother. "Mischief
+can be forgiven but stealing is a crime. When I opened an envelope and
+found a bill for the month of April from Bartlett's store, I hoped
+against hope that there must be a mistake. But now you confess you've
+been deceiving me and charging the groceries that I gave you money to
+pay for. I never thought I would be so ashamed of you, Jerry Martin."
+The look she gave him was worse than a blow.
+
+So she thought him a thief--was ashamed of him--believed the worst of
+him before giving him a chance to explain. Jerry felt such a deep hurt
+he felt like crying but he wasn't going to let anybody see him cry.
+And if that was what his mother thought of him, he wasn't going to
+stay around here. Not after she had looked at him as if she wished he
+did not belong in her family.
+
+Jerry slammed the box of candy so hard on the table that the cover
+opened and some of the candy fell out.
+
+"I paid the bill with the money. Ask Mr. Bartlett if you don't believe
+me. I was going to surprise you by showing you the bonus he gives for
+charging a month's groceries. I didn't spend a cent of your old money.
+I--" Jerry suddenly could not endure being there a second longer. He
+rushed out, slamming the door behind him.
+
+Rage sent Jerry hurrying down his street and out to Massachusetts
+Avenue. He was so hurt and angry he could hardly see straight. He
+would run away from home. He would leave Washington. He would go
+somewhere a long way off. He would go where nobody would be likely to
+accuse him unjustly of being a thief. He walked rapidly, almost
+running in his hurry to leave home.
+
+Where should he go? Jerry did not have even the bus fare to go to
+town, let alone get out of the city. But he had two feet, didn't he?
+Maybe after he decided where he was going he would hitchhike. Jerry
+knew his mother disapproved of hitchhiking but why should he pay any
+attention to that now, after she had believed him to be a thief? Jerry
+made no effort, however, to hitch a ride. He walked and walked.
+
+There were azaleas in bloom in some of the yards he passed. Bushes of
+faded lilacs. Bright beds of tulips and pansies. Jerry did not notice
+them. He was in no mood to enjoy flowers. He was about a mile from
+home when he remembered hearing a guest say to his mother, "Florida is
+really delightful in the spring. And after the winter visitors have
+left the prices go down."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jerry thought it might be a good idea to go where the prices had gone
+down. Be easier for him to earn enough to live on. A lot of people
+went fishing off the coast of Florida. Maybe he could help out on some
+fishing boat. Jerry liked to fish and he liked boats. That idea
+appealed to him. But he realized that it was a long, long way to
+Florida from Washington, D. C. It was even a long way--five miles at
+least--from Jerry's house to Memorial Bridge, over which he would
+cross the Potomac into the state of Virginia.
+
+As Jerry went along the part of Massachusetts Avenue which has many
+foreign embassies, it occurred to him that he might be seeing
+Washington for the last time. So he looked hard at the white
+Venezuelan Embassy and at the red brick British Embassy. Those were
+his two favorites, and he wanted to remember how they looked.
+
+There were several circles to go around and a bridge to cross over
+Rock Creek Park before Jerry was anywhere near Memorial Bridge. He
+missed his direction a little when he left Massachusetts Avenue, but
+he was finally in sight of the Lincoln Memorial and the bridge was
+near.
+
+Jerry yielded to an impulse to take a last look at the Lincoln
+Memorial. He climbed the steps and stood and gazed up at the seated
+figure of Abraham Lincoln, with so much sadness and kindness in his
+face.
+
+Having paid his respects to Abraham Lincoln, it didn't seem quite
+right to be leaving town without doing the same by George Washington.
+Weary though his legs were, Jerry trudged over to the Washington
+Monument.
+
+There were not many people waiting in line to go up in the Monument.
+Jerry was the only one who walked up instead of riding to the top in
+the elevator. Jerry did not know why he wanted to climb all those
+eight hundred and ninety-eight steps, but he did. He did a lot of
+thinking and remembering on his way up. That was the way you did when
+you were leaving home, he guessed. He thought of school and home and
+playing baseball--things like that. And some about George Washington.
+Jerry greatly admired all he had read about him. He was glad they had
+named the capital of the United States for Washington.
+
+Jerry had been at the top of the Monument many times, yet it was
+always a thrill to go from window to window and see each scene below.
+From this one he could see the Capitol and the greenish dome of the
+Library of Congress. From another window he looked down on a crowded
+part of the city. Jerry thought that if he knew just where to look, he
+might see the hospital where he had been born.
+
+The window that overlooked the White House was one of Jerry's favorite
+views. He remembered Easter Mondays when he had gone to roll eggs on
+the White House lawn. He remembered a time when he was five, younger
+than Andy--a time when he had gotten separated from his mother--had
+been lost. A Girl Scout had taken him to a place where lost children
+waited to be claimed. A lady played games with them while they waited,
+but a few of the children had cried. Jerry had not cried. He somehow
+felt more like crying now. And even more lost.
+
+Well, he must be on his way. He would take the elevator down, for he
+felt his legs would not last for all of those steps going down. Yet he
+was reluctant to leave the top of the Monument. Each window gave a
+picture postcard view of the city he was leaving. It was up here that
+he was really saying good-by to Washington, D. C.
+
+Why did he have to think just then of the honesty of Lincoln? Or of
+how Washington had stayed with his soldiers through the hardships of
+the winter at Valley Forge? They were not men who had run away from
+the hard things of life. Jerry tried to close his mind against
+thoughts of Lincoln and Washington. They were dead and gone and had
+nothing to do with him. It was no use. It had been a mistake, Jerry
+realized now, to revisit the Memorial and the Monument. Something in
+both places had pulled against his wanting to run away. Suddenly Jerry
+realized that he couldn't do it. He no longer even wanted to run away.
+He wanted to go home.
+
+
+
+
+11
+
+Welcome Home!
+
+
+It was growing dark by the time Jerry reached home. By now his family
+would know for sure that he was no thief, but Jerry knew it was
+possible that his father would be angry about the charge account, in
+spite of the free box of candy. For a moment Jerry hesitated outside
+the door. Then he squared his shoulders and went in.
+
+The whole family were in the kitchen. Jerry saw every eye turned
+toward him--every face light up with relief.
+
+"Hi, Jerry, where've you been?" cried Andy.
+
+"I told you he'd come back," said Cathy.
+
+Jerry was so grateful to Cathy for having believed in him even when
+things looked bad that he thought he would never again tease her about
+reading lovey-dovey books or admiring herself in mirrors.
+
+"Oh, Jerry!" cried his mother.
+
+Jerry read the relief and welcome in her face--the love for him. He
+found that he was no longer angry with his mother. Somewhere on the
+long, long walk, his anger had died. He could understand that it had
+been no wonder she had believed the worst of him--getting that bill
+in the mail and all.
+
+"Got anything to eat?" he asked her.
+
+"We were too worried to eat. None of us has had a bite of dinner."
+Mrs. Martin rushed to the stove and clattered pots and pans as she put
+things on to reheat.
+
+His father's clear blue eyes were on Jerry. "After dinner," he said,
+"you and I will have a little talk."
+
+Jerry did not look forward to that talk, yet it took more than dread
+to spoil his appetite. His mother said that the onions and asparagus
+were not as good as when they had been freshly cooked more than two
+hours ago. But they tasted fine to Jerry. Nor did he mind that the pot
+roast and rolls were reheated. He slathered butter on three rolls and
+would have eaten a fourth if he had not seen the necessity of saving
+room for a piece of apple pie.
+
+Only Andy bothered Jerry with questions while he was eating. "Where
+did you go?" he asked.
+
+"To the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, if you must
+know," said Jerry. "I walked up but I rode down in the Monument."
+
+"Is that all you did?" asked Andy.
+
+"I just walked around."
+
+"Walking around gave you a good appetite," said Mr. Martin, as he cut
+another slice of pot roast for Jerry's plate. "A good thing you don't
+walk around five or six hours every day or I might not be able to
+pay the grocery bill."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jerry winced. He knew his father meant paying cash for groceries, not
+a grocery bill. His father did not have bills--never charged things.
+Looking at his father's firm mouth and chin, Jerry wondered how he
+could have expected to win his father over to having a charge account.
+Parents were the way they were and stayed that way. Especially his
+father. It would take much more than half a pound of candy to make him
+change his mind about charge accounts, Jerry now fully realized.
+
+Mr. Martin said he and Jerry would have their talk down in the
+recreation room. Jerry noticed his mother and Cathy looked worried.
+Maybe they expected his father to give him a beating. Jerry was a
+little worried about that prospect himself.
+
+Jerry saw Pedro watching them as he and his father sat down on the
+sofa.
+
+"Has Pedro talked any more?" Jerry asked.
+
+"Stop gawking at that parrot and pay attention to me," said Jerry's
+father.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You had your mother worried sick."
+
+Jerry said he was sorry.
+
+"Did you stay out so long on purpose to worry her?"
+
+Jerry said that had not been the reason at all. He confessed that he
+had intended to run away to Florida but had changed his mind and come
+home.
+
+Mr. Martin's sternness softened. "A good many boys run away from
+home," he said. "The luckiest ones are those who come back before they
+have run too far. It was this charge account business you were running
+away from, wasn't it?"
+
+"Partly." Jerry could not tell his father that his mother's lack of
+belief in his honesty had had more to do with his running away. Jerry
+did not want to remember how his mother had looked at him. He hoped
+never to bring an expression like that to her face again.
+
+"The worst thing about your scheme for the charge account was that you
+were handling money that belonged to somebody else without his
+permission," said Jerry's father.
+
+"You mean Mr. Bartlett. It was his money but I don't see why--"
+
+"It was not then Mr. Bartlett's money but mine. You contracted a debt
+in my name and withheld money that had been entrusted to you."
+
+The way his father put it made Jerry feel that he had done something
+nearly bad enough for him to be put in jail.
+
+"I was just trying to prove that it pays to have a charge account at
+Bartlett's," said Jerry.
+
+"You knew very well that I don't have charge accounts or intend to
+have them."
+
+"What's the sin about charging things?"
+
+"No sin, of course. I didn't say it was. It's a person's right to
+charge anything he wants to. And my right to pay cash, since I prefer
+to do business that way."
+
+"I guess that wasn't a good idea of mine," said Jerry.
+
+"Mr. Bartlett is a little to blame for what you did," said Mr. Martin.
+"I went to his store and told him in no uncertain terms that I did not
+think it fair for a storekeeper to reward credit customers and do
+nothing for even better cash customers."
+
+"So is he going to stop giving candy to people when they pay their
+bills?"
+
+"No. He says he's sentimental about that old family custom. But he saw
+the justice of my argument. He has decided to give the equivalent of a
+two per cent discount in produce to any customer whose cash receipts
+for a month are more than fifty dollars."
+
+"What does that mean--in produce?"
+
+"Well, it could be a bag of potatoes or a box of candy. That's
+entirely up to your mother."
+
+"Not bad. Not bad at all," said Jerry.
+
+"You can wipe that self-satisfied expression right off your face,
+young man," said Jerry's father. "Taking things in your own hands and
+deciding what I should do with _my_ money was wrong and you know it.
+You do know it, don't you?"
+
+Jerry said he could see now that it had not been the right thing to
+do.
+
+"When I think of all the time and effort you put in for half a pound
+of candy--well, I can only hope that someday you'll work as hard at
+something useful."
+
+Jerry wished his father would hurry up and say what his punishment was
+to be.
+
+"Considering that there are extenuating circumstances, I am letting
+you off easy," said his father. "No baseball games for you for the
+rest of the season. Either at the ball park or on television."
+
+"Not even the World Series on television?"
+
+"Not even the World Series."
+
+The punishment did not seem light to Jerry. He was crushed. "Can't I
+even play baseball?"
+
+Jerry's father considered the question. "Suppose we confine the
+restriction to looking at professional baseball."
+
+Jerry sighed in relief. That was not quite as bad. "What are you going
+to do with that box of candy?" he dared ask.
+
+"I suppose you expected to gorge yourself on it."
+
+"I was going to pass it around," said Jerry. "And take a few pieces
+over to the Bullfinches. He's been awfully nice to me."
+
+"As long as you have it, you may as well pass the candy around," said
+Mr. Martin. "But remember. Don't you ever do such a deceitful thing
+again, Jerry Martin."
+
+"I won't. Honest."
+
+In the cage by the window, the big green parrot flapped his wings.
+
+"Sometimes he does that when he's getting ready to talk," said Jerry.
+
+The parrot remarked something in Spanish which Jerry did not
+understand. Then he said "Jerry" quite clearly. "Jerry!" he called in
+his loud, hoarse voice. "Jerry!"
+
+The subdued look on Jerry's face was replaced by a broad smile. "I'm
+the first one in this family he's called by name," he said to his
+father.
+
+"It's a good name," said Mr. Martin. "Your Grandfather Martin's name.
+He made it a name to be proud of. See that you keep it that way."
+
+Jerry said he certainly would try. He really meant to. He and his
+father went back upstairs together. Weary though he was, Jerry felt
+the relief of having that charge account business off his shoulders.
+In spite of being deprived of his beloved ball games, he felt more
+lighthearted than he had for weeks. First, he would pass the candy box
+to Andy and then to the rest of the family. Then, before taking some
+over to the Bullfinches', he would take a green mint down to Pedro.
+
+"If he doesn't like it, I'll eat it myself," thought Jerry.
+
+
+
+
+THE Surprise OF THEIR LIVES
+
+by Hazel Wilson
+
+
+This book contains the amazing story of Mary Jo and James Dunham, who
+lived on Morning Street in Portland, Maine, with their father and
+mother and small sister Ellen.
+
+You wouldn't expect much out of the ordinary to happen to the Dunhams.
+They went about their happy life--having birthdays and Halloween
+parties, going to school and staying after, getting into barrels and
+the mouths of cannons, quarreling and scolding sometimes, but being
+fond of each other always underneath--as if it would be that way
+forever.
+
+But you would be reckoning without Lizzie Atkins and scarlet fever if
+you thought the sea would always stay calm with only a few ripples for
+the Dunhams. In fact, it was mostly due to Lizzie, whom some parents
+forbade their children to play with, that Mary Jo and James received
+just about the biggest surprise that could happen to anyone.
+
+This is not the place to tell what the surprise was. You will have to
+read the book to find out.
+
+_Drawings and jacket by_
+Robert Henneberger
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: (Hazel Wilson photo by Lange)]
+
+HAZEL WILSON
+
+
+Mrs. Wilson has written several stories with the background of her
+native State of Maine. Among them are THE SURPRISE OF THEIR LIVES,
+about the amazing adventure of a boy and girl in the days when ocean
+liners docked at Portland, and TALL SHIPS, an exciting tale of
+impressment and sea battles during the War of 1812.
+
+In 1956, Mrs. Wilson's work for children and books, as librarian,
+teacher, and author, was recognized by her own college, Bates, in
+Maine, which awarded her its honorary degree of Master of Arts.
+
+For JERRY'S CHARGE ACCOUNT, she has moved her background to what is
+now her home city, Washington, D.C. Readers will discover that this
+background plays an important part in helping Jerry work out his
+difficulties.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+
+Moved some illustrations to avoid breaking up the text. Corrected
+mismatched quotes.
+
+On page 30, changed "his legs for apart" to "his legs far apart".
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Jerry's Charge Account, by Hazel Hutchins Wilson
+
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+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Jerry's Charge Account, by Hazel Hutchins Wilson.
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+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Jerry's Charge Account, by Hazel Hutchins Wilson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Jerry's Charge Account
+
+Author: Hazel Hutchins Wilson
+
+Illustrator: Charles Geer
+
+Release Date: November 26, 2008 [EBook #27211]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JERRY'S CHARGE ACCOUNT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Diane Monico, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 493px;">
+<img src="images/image001.jpg" width="493" height="600" alt="(cover)" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<h1>JERRY'S<br />
+
+CHARGE<br />
+
+ACCOUNT</h1>
+
+<h2>by Hazel Wilson</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Jerry Martin asked for it. If the candy in Mr. Bartlett's store hadn't
+looked so good to him, he wouldn't have started the charge account and
+he would have escaped all that worry and trouble.</p>
+
+<p>The worst thing about it was that it was sort of fun, too. It was fun
+keeping his twin sister Cathy guessing, fun trying to keep his secret
+from the family, especially his little brother Andy.</p>
+
+<p>So Jerry kept getting deeper and deeper into his predicament, like a
+man in quicksand. The plain fact was, Jerry's father didn't approve of
+charge accounts, and Jerry wasn't likely to change his mind for him,
+candy or no candy. Then, when somebody broke into Mr. Bullfinch's
+house next door, the trouble became serious.</p>
+
+<p>There is laughter and suspense, and a hidden lesson in this story of
+an impulsive boy and his true-to-life family.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+Illustrated by<br />
+<b>Charles Geer</b><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><i>BOOKS BY HAZEL WILSON</i></h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Surprise of Their Lives</span><br /><br />
+
+<span class="smcap">Tall Ships</span><br /><br />
+
+<span class="smcap">The Red Dory</span><br /><br />
+
+<span class="smcap">Jerry's Charge Account</span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+
+<h1>
+Jerry's<br />
+Charge<br />
+Account<br />
+</h1>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 377px;">
+<img src="images/image004.png" width="377" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h1>
+JERRY'S<br />
+CHARGE<br />
+ACCOUNT</h1>
+
+<h2>by Hazel Wilson<br /><br /></h2>
+
+<h3>with illustrations by Charles Geer<br /><br /><br /></h3>
+
+<h4>LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY</h4>
+
+<h5>BOSTON &middot; TORONTO</h5>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p class="center"><small>COPYRIGHT, &copy;, 1960, BY HAZEL WILSON</small></p>
+
+<p class="center"><small>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY
+FORM WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER, EXCEPT BY A
+REVIEWER WHO MAY QUOTE BRIEF PASSAGES IN A REVIEW TO BE PRINTED IN A
+MAGAZINE OR NEWSPAPER.</small></p>
+
+<p class="center"><small>LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NO. 60-5877</small></p>
+
+<p class="center"><small>FOURTH PRINTING</small></p>
+
+<p class="center"><small>Published simultaneously in Canada</small><br />
+<small>by Little, Brown &amp; Company (Canada) Limited</small></p>
+
+<p class="center"><small>PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</small></p>
+
+<p class="center">[Transcriber's Note: Project Gutenberg was not able to find a U. S.
+copyright renewal.]</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+
+<h3>
+This book is affectionately dedicated to<br />
+Gregory and Kevin<br />
+</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="toc">
+<tr><td align='right'> 1</td><td align='left'>Charge It, Please</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'> 2</td><td align='left'>Change for a Ten-Dollar Bill</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'> 3</td><td align='left'>P. T. A. Meeting</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'> 4</td><td align='left'>No Safe Hiding Place</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'> 5</td><td align='left'>New Neighbors</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'> 6</td><td align='left'>"The Stars and Stripes Forever"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'> 7</td><td align='left'>Working on Andy</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'> 8</td><td align='left'>The Auction</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'> 9</td><td align='left'>As Good as a Watchdog</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>10</td><td align='left'>May Day</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>11</td><td align='left'>Welcome Home!</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1>Jerry's<br />
+
+Charge<br />
+
+Account</h1>
+
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>1</h2>
+
+<h2>Charge It, Please</h2>
+
+
+<p>Jerry tried to be quiet, but he bumped into the one chair in the
+kitchen on his way to the kitchen cupboard. And it was not his fault
+that the cream pitcher fell when he took the sugarbowl from the shelf.
+Jerry made a quick and nice southpaw catch. Pretty good, he thought,
+for a right-hander. He hadn't been able to use his right because it
+was holding the sugarbowl. He had dumped the sugar into a cereal dish
+and was busily pouring salt into the sugarbowl when his mother entered
+the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth are you doing up so early on Saturday?" Mrs. Martin
+asked sleepily. "It's only half-past six."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry's blue eyes begged his mother to share a joke with him. "I woke
+up and remembered it's April Fools' Day," he said and chuckled. "Can't
+you just see Dad's face when he tastes his coffee with two spoonfuls
+of salt in it instead of sugar?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Jerry," said his mother. "No. It wouldn't be at all funny to
+spoil your father's morning coffee. It would be tragic. Put the salt
+back, rinse out the sugarbowl, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> refill it with sugar. And no more
+April-fooling with your father's breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>"Aw, I never can have any fun around here," Jerry complained. Salt
+spilled on the floor when he poured it from the sugarbowl back into
+the spout of the salt box.</p>
+
+<p>"Sweep it up," ordered his mother, and Jerry had to get out the brush
+and dustpan.</p>
+
+<p>When he went to the sink to rinse the sugarbowl, Jerry turned on the
+hot water so hard that he had to draw his hand back quickly or it
+would have been scalded. The sugarbowl fell in the sink and broke.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear! I need cast-iron dishes instead of china if you're to
+handle them," scolded Mrs. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>"It just slipped out of my hands. I can mend it. That new glue I
+bought last week will mend china, glass, wood&mdash;anything. It says so on
+the tube."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry looked so sorry for having broken the sugarbowl that his mother
+stopped being cross. "It was cracked anyway," she said consolingly.
+"Now go get dressed. As long as you're up you may as well stay up.
+Maybe I can get a little work out of you since you've got such an
+early start on the day."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry groaned. What a dreary word&mdash;work! Just hearing it made him feel
+tired.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll have pancakes ready in fifteen minutes," said his mother
+brightly. "With real maple syrup," she added.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry could tell that she was tempting his appetite so he would not be
+tempted to go back to bed again. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> did not mind. He was wide awake.
+It would be a novelty to have breakfast so early on a Saturday. Almost
+an April Fool joke on his mother.</p>
+
+<p>"And to think that last Saturday I could hardly get you out of bed at
+ten," said his mother as he left the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>At a little before nine Jerry had a broom in his hand. His orders were
+to sweep off the front steps. He went at it in a very leisurely
+manner. The sooner he finished the sooner his mother might give him
+some other chore to do. Even though Laura, the pleasant
+three-times-a-week maid, did most of the cleaning, Mrs. Martin
+believed her children should have a few household chores. Cathy,
+Jerry's twin sister, had to do the breakfast dishes on Saturdays, and
+even five-year-old Andy, the youngest member of the Martin family, was
+supposed to empty the wastebaskets.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry's lazy broom finished the top step and began on the second. Then
+it occurred to him that it had been some time since he had
+investigated what was under the steps. He put down his broom while he
+knelt and applied one eye to one of the holes bored in the steps. The
+hole was big enough so if somebody dropped a dime just right it would
+go through. No dimes down there today.</p>
+
+<p>As Jerry got to his feet he looked with approval at the big white
+clapboarded house where he lived. The morning sun made the small-paned
+windows shine. The Martin house was on the very edge of northwest
+Washington, D. C. It had been one of the original farmhouses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> when
+that part of Washington had been country, not city. Now there were
+houses all around, and it had been remodeled long before the Martins
+had bought it. Jerry's father and mother were proud of the old
+floorboards and wide fireplaces. Jerry especially liked the house
+because it had an attic and a big garage that had been a barn.</p>
+
+<p>As he picked up his broom again, his twin sister came to the door to
+shake a dustcloth. Also, he was sure, to check up on what he was
+doing.</p>
+
+<p>"Cathy!" cried Jerry. "There's a great big spider crawling up your
+left leg."</p>
+
+<p>Cathy did not let a yip out of her. "You can't April-fool me that
+easy," she said in a superior-sounding way that irritated Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>Lately he and his twin often irritated each other. For one thing Cathy
+had recently developed an intense interest in how she looked, which
+seemed silly to Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"Better wipe that black off your left cheek," he said, and laughed
+when Cathy raised her hand to her cheek. "April Fool! Got you that
+time," he exulted.</p>
+
+<p>"Think you're smart, don't you?" grumbled Cathy. "Half the time you
+don't even notice it when your face is dirty. To say nothing of your
+ears."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry swushed dirt off a step and changed the subject. "Have you
+fooled anybody yet this morning?" he asked.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 374px;">
+<img src="images/image007.png" width="374" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>"Just Andy. I asked him if he knew that Bibsy had grown another head
+during the night, and he almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> cried when he found I was
+April-fooling him. He said he had always wanted a two-headed cat. Then
+when I asked him if he had seen the alligator under the dining room
+table, he wouldn't look. He just said, 'What's a nalligator?' I told
+him it was like Mummy's handbag only much, much bigger, and he wants
+to see a real one. Mummy says we must take him to the zoo someday
+soon. But I can't remember seeing an alligator there, can you?"</p>
+
+<p>Cathy tossed her head, giving her pony tail a little exercise.</p>
+
+<p>"Too bad you didn't say seal instead of alligator. There <i>are</i> seals
+at the zoo. Say, I wouldn't mind going to the zoo this forenoon. Even
+if we have to take Andy. Want to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope. Mummy's taking me to town to buy a new dress for Easter."
+Cathy's eyes were bright with expectation.</p>
+
+<p>It was beyond Jerry why Cathy should be pleased to waste good playing
+time in town buying a dress. She didn't used to be that way. She used
+to complain bitterly about having to change from blue jeans into a
+dress. She still liked wearing jeans, yet there came a shine in her
+eyes at even the mention of buying a new dress. Mummy said that
+eleven-going-on-twelve was getting to be a young lady. "Rats!" thought
+Jerry. It was silly for Cathy to begin to be young-lady-like when she
+could throw a baseball just about as well as a boy and sometimes
+better.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Jerry!" called his mother from a front window. "I want you to run to
+the store for me. Right away."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't Cathy go?" Jerry really did not mind running (though he usually
+walked or rode his bike to the store) but it was a matter of principle
+with him to make a try at getting out of work.</p>
+
+<p>"I have other things for Cathy to do," said Mrs. Martin and shut the
+window.</p>
+
+<p>There were two steps still unswept but Jerry left them untouched by
+his lazy broom. After all, how could he be expected to do two things
+at once? He wished, not for the first time, that his mother would do
+her grocery shopping at the supermarket, which was far enough away so
+she would have to take the car. Instead, she mostly traded at
+Bartlett's, a small old-fashioned store three blocks from where the
+Martin family lived.</p>
+
+<p>"There aren't many small grocery stores left and since we have one
+right in the neighborhood I like to patronize it," Jerry had heard his
+mother say. She liked stores where the owner came to wait on you. But
+Jerry suspected that one reason she traded at Bartlett's was because
+she thought it was good for a boy to run errands.</p>
+
+<p>Going to the store was Jerry's chief chore. "Just because her
+grandfather had to chop wood and milk cows before breakfast when he
+was a boy, she thinks she should keep <i>me</i> busy," he grumbled to
+himself as he went in the house. "Why do I have to go to the store?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+Bartlett delivers. Why can't she telephone her order and have it
+delivered?"</p>
+
+<p>He knew that the answer to that was more than his mother's desire to
+keep him busy. It was partly because she did not like to plan meals
+ahead. A brisk cold day might make her feel like having pork chops and
+hot applesauce for dinner. Or for a warm day, a platter of cold cuts
+and deviled eggs.</p>
+
+<p>"It's just the day for calves' liver and bacon," she might say when
+Jerry got home from school in the afternoon. And she would send him to
+the store for a pound and a half of fresh calves' liver cut thin, "the
+way Mr. Bartlett knows I like it." A meal, his mother thought, should
+match her mood or the weather. She kept a few frozen vegetables on
+hand in case of need, but she much preferred fresh vegetables, freshly
+cut steaks and chops&mdash;fresh almost anything which could be bought
+fresh.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it's a frozen food age but I still prefer my meat and
+vegetables fresh," Mrs. Martin often said. That meant a lot of trips
+to the store. Too many, Jerry thought. Especially on Saturdays, when
+she needed a lot of things.</p>
+
+<p>His mother was in the kitchen mixing dough for doughnuts. Jerry was
+glad she made doughnuts instead of buying bakery ones. How good
+doughnuts tasted hot out of the fat! He wished a few of them were done
+so he could have two or three to eat on his way to the store.</p>
+
+<p>"Want me to fry 'em for you and then go to the store?" he offered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No. I need a carton of sour cream right away for my chocolate cake.
+And, let me see&mdash;five pounds of Idaho potatoes, two pounds of ground
+round steak&mdash;I feel like having meat loaf tonight&mdash;and two acorn
+squash, an avocado, a dozen oranges, and one loaf of white bread and
+one of whole wheat. Oh, and I've already telephoned and told Mr.
+Bartlett that you would be in to pick up a leg of lamb. He has spring
+lamb just in. You'll have to take your cart. There'll be too much for
+you to carry in your bicycle basket."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry had felt lately that he was too old to be dragging home a cart
+filled with groceries. "How long will it be before Andy can take that
+old cart to the store? He can have it to keep any old time he'll take
+it to the store after groceries."</p>
+
+<p>"You've only had it a year. Said you would be sure to use it for
+years. And you know Andy isn't nearly old enough to take a big cart
+out of the yard. Now run along. And don't stop to play on the way
+home."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry got his cart out of the garage. The wheels squeaked but that
+didn't bother him. He met a couple of boys in his grade at school on
+his way to the store and arranged for baseball later.</p>
+
+<p>Bartlett's store was on a street zoned only for houses, yet because
+the store had been there before the zoning law was passed it had been
+allowed to remain. The present proprietor was the third generation of
+Bartletts who had sold groceries there. He was a stout, pink-faced
+man,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> quite bald in front. Jerry said that Mr. Bartlett's forehead
+went way to the back of his head. When Jerry went in the store, Mr.
+Bartlett was waiting on a tall woman with a blue scarf over her head,
+and Bill, the clerk who put up orders, was tossing groceries into
+cartons, each carton for a customer.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry had to wait while the woman with the blue scarf decided what she
+would have for Sunday dinner. It seemed to take her a long time to
+make up her mind. After trying without much success to engage Bill in
+conversation, Jerry stood in front of the candy showcase next to the
+cash register and wished he had money with him besides the ten-dollar
+bill his mother had given him to pay for the groceries.</p>
+
+<p>My, but the candy looked yummy! There were glass trays of round mints,
+pink, white, green, and yellow. And caramels, chocolate-covered nuts,
+coconut bonbons, chocolate nougats&mdash;nothing there Jerry didn't like.
+He looked at the candy yearningly.</p>
+
+<p>Now the lady had decided on a sirloin steak, thank goodness. Another
+customer came in but Jerry would be next to be waited on. He would
+speak right up and say he was next if Mr. Bartlett started to wait on
+somebody else first, he decided.</p>
+
+<p>The lady wearing the blue scarf reached into her handbag and got out
+her billfold. "I want to pay my March grocery bill," she said. She
+stood beside Jerry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> near the cash register while Mr. Bartlett was
+behind the counter giving her change.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go off without your little bonus," said Mr. Bartlett. "My daddy
+and my granddaddy before him always gave folks a little bonus when
+they paid their bills."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry saw Mr. Bartlett get out a half-pound pasteboard box. Saw him
+reach in the showcase and bring out enough candy to fill two rows in
+the box. Jerry had heard that Mr. Bartlett gave candy to charge
+customers when they paid their bills, but he had never before been in
+the store and seen it happen. The sight saddened him. For he knew that
+never for him would Mr. Bartlett fill a half-pound box of candy as a
+gift. The Martin family never charged groceries. They never charged
+anything. Mr. Martin believed in paying cash for everything. Even for
+a new car. He was funny that way. Jerry had never much minded until
+this minute when he saw a charge customer rewarded for being a charge
+customer.</p>
+
+<p>"Wish we had a charge account. I wouldn't have to worry about losing
+money on the way home, if we did," thought Jerry, remembering the
+tendency of loose change to fall out of his pocket when he jumped over
+hedges. "Besides, Mr. Bartlett must want people to have charge
+accounts or he wouldn't give them a bonus when they pay their bills.
+Stands to reason. He likes to have folks charge their groceries
+instead of paying cash, so a charge account must be a good thing. Wish
+my father<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> thought so. If he were here and saw Mr. Bartlett hand over
+that free candy, he'd be bound to see it pays to charge your
+groceries."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, young man, what can I do for you?" asked Mr. Bartlett. Jerry had
+been thinking so hard about the advantages of having a charge account
+that he had hard work remembering what his mother had sent him to the
+store for. But he managed to recollect all but the avocado. Jerry
+didn't like avocados so it was easy for him to forget that. It was
+while Mr. Bartlett was counting out a dozen oranges that Jerry had
+what he considered a very bright idea. There was a way he could
+convince his father that Bartlett's store was the one place where it
+didn't pay to pay cash.</p>
+
+<p>"It won't be dishonest," Jerry argued to himself. "I won't be getting
+a cent out of it. Only a box of candy at the end of the month. And if
+we eat an awful lot and the bill is nice and big for April, maybe Mr.
+Bartlett will give me a pound box of candy instead of a half pound."</p>
+
+<p>The plan that had popped into Jerry's mind was this&mdash;he would not pay
+for groceries for the month of April but charge them. He would keep in
+a safe place the money his mother gave him to pay for them. And the
+first day of May he would come in with it and pay the bill and be
+given a box of candy.</p>
+
+<p>"When I take the candy home and pass the box to Dad, he'll see it's a
+good thing to charge our groceries," thought Jerry. The scene was so
+vivid in his mind that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> could almost see his father taking a
+chocolate-covered almond.</p>
+
+<p>"I said that will be eight dollars and twenty-one cents," said Mr.
+Bartlett, a bit impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry reached in his pocket and got out his mother's coin purse. He
+preferred carrying money loose in his pocket but she had said he could
+risk losing his own money that way, not hers. It was while he was
+opening the purse that he suddenly decided to try out his bright idea.</p>
+
+<p>"Charge it, please," he said huskily.</p>
+
+<p>"You folks opening a charge account?" asked Mr. Bartlett.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that all right with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure. Sure. You've been trading with me for years. And your father's
+credit is good as gold, which is more than I can say for some." Mr.
+Bartlett made out a slip, which he put in the bag of groceries.</p>
+
+<p>"He knows me and can tell I'm honest," thought Jerry happily, as he
+put the heavy bag of groceries in his cart. The grocery slip he took
+out of the bag and put in his pocket. "I must remember to save all the
+slips," he thought.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 379px;">
+<img src="images/image016.png" width="379" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was almost home when he remembered that his ten-dollar bill was
+still unbroken. And that he had to have change to give his mother
+before he could put the eight dollars and twenty-one cents the
+groceries cost in a safe hiding place. It was Mr. Bartlett's money,
+Jerry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> thought. Jerry would just be keeping the money for him until a
+month was up.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was reluctant to go back to Bartlett's store and ask to have his
+bill changed. He was sure Mr. Bartlett would think it odd, after he
+had charged the groceries.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll have to walk way down to the shopping center," thought Jerry.
+Thinking about all the streets he would have to cross, with the
+trouble of getting the heavy cart up and down the curbs, Jerry was not
+so sure that starting a charge account had been such a good idea after
+all. He had a feeling that in a way he might have played sort of an
+April Fool joke on himself. But it was too late now to undo what he
+had done. He would feel like a ninny going back and telling Mr.
+Bartlett that he had decided to pay cash, that he had changed his mind
+about opening a charge account for the Martin family.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll get my bill changed at the A &amp; P," Jerry decided. And went so
+fast in that direction that the bag holding the potatoes fell out of
+the cart and broke and Jerry lost two of them down a sewer. After that
+he went more slowly, though he found it hard to make the heavy cart go
+downhill slowly. It made his arms ache holding it back.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>2</h2>
+
+<h2>Change for a Ten-Dollar Bill</h2>
+
+
+<p>Having to drag a heavy cart with a big bag of groceries in it nearly a
+mile to the shopping center became considerable of a chore even before
+Jerry was halfway there.</p>
+
+<p>"Lemme see," he thought as he bumped the cart down a curb. "I know I
+have to put away eight dollars and twenty-one cents for Mr. Bartlett.
+How much is that from ten dollars? That's the right change for Mummy."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry had a pained look on his face as he tried to do the subtraction
+in his head. He was never any good in mental arithmetic. Give him a
+pencil in his hand and he could do pretty well at figuring. But his
+mind seemed to go blank when he had to carry and all that in his head.
+He reached in all his pockets but did not have a pencil. And he knew
+he had to ask for the right change.</p>
+
+<p>Just then Jerry saw Carl Weston coming up the street. He was a
+classmate of Jerry's in the sixth grade. He wore thick-lensed glasses
+and was quite a brain. He'd be almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> sure to have a pencil or a
+ballpoint pen. But Jerry asked him and he didn't, so Jerry gave him a
+line about being a whiz at arithmetic and said he bet Carl could say
+right off how much money you'd have left if you subtracted eight
+dollars and twenty-one cents from ten dollars.</p>
+
+<p>For a few seconds Jerry saw a human adding-machine at work. Then Carl
+said, "One dollar and seventy-nine cents, of course." He didn't add
+"Stupid," but he looked as if that were what he was thinking. Jerry
+didn't care. He knew a lot of important things Carl didn't know, such
+as baseball averages and who were the home-run kings for the past five
+years.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, Carl. See you." And Jerry hurried off before Carl could ask
+just why he wanted to know the answer to that particular sum in
+subtraction. "One dollar and seventy-nine cents," Jerry kept saying to
+himself so he wouldn't forget.</p>
+
+<p>There were long lines of shoppers at the checking-out counters at the
+A &amp; P. Jerry had left his cart outside the store, thinking it not
+tactful to bring in a big bag of groceries he had bought in another
+store. He took his place in what he thought was the shortest line.
+Some woman had forgotten to have her bag of bananas weighed and that
+held up the line. The next woman wanted to cash a check and that had
+to be okayed by the manager. Jerry fidgeted. He saw that the woman
+ahead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> of the woman ahead of him had a cart so piled with groceries
+that she must be feeding a boardinghouse, or an awfully big family.</p>
+
+<p>It was all of fifteen minutes, but seemed twice as long, before Jerry
+reached the clerk behind the counter and asked for change.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry, but I'm short of change," said the young man behind the
+counter.</p>
+
+<p>A wave of discouragement swept over Jerry. Perhaps storekeepers
+wouldn't give change to anybody who wasn't buying anything. But he had
+to get his ten-dollar bill changed. He didn't have the heart to wait
+in another line to see if another clerk might give him change. He went
+out. He would have to try another store.</p>
+
+<p>He opened the door of the florist shop and backed out. The woman in
+charge there looked just too elegant to approach. At the hardware
+store he was told that he could have two fives for a ten if that would
+help him. It wouldn't, so Jerry still had his ten-dollar bill
+unchanged.</p>
+
+<p>Here was the barbershop. One particular barber usually cut Jerry's
+hair. Jerry was glad to find that George was not busy.</p>
+
+<p>"Thought I gave you a haircut less than a week ago," George greeted
+him. "Did you come in to get your head shaved? Be cooler, warm weather
+coming on."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry explained that he was satisfied with the state of his crew cut.
+Rather timidly he asked to have his ten-dollar bill changed, told the
+exact change he had to have.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Guess I can oblige you, but Saturday's a bad day for change, with the
+banks closed all day," said George. He went to the cash register and
+counted out the change Jerry needed.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank <i>you</i>," said Jerry with great heartiness.</p>
+
+<p>Now to get home in a hurry. He went out to get his cart, which he had
+left outside the barbershop. A big red setter dog was pawing the bag
+of groceries. "Red! Get away from there!" Jerry yelled. With horror he
+saw that the dog had the leg of lamb in his strong jaws.</p>
+
+<p>"Drop that, Red!" shouted Jerry. He ran and grabbed the other end of
+the leg of lamb and tried to get it away from the dog.</p>
+
+<p>Red was a good-natured animal who often seemed to forget he was a dog,
+he so much wanted to be one of the boys. He especially enjoyed taking
+part in baseball games. He ran bases and barked as loud as any of the
+players could shout. Last Saturday Jerry might have made a home run if
+Red had not dashed in front of him so Jerry fell over him. Now Red
+thought a tug of war with a leg of lamb was a fine game.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry pulled. The red setter braced his legs and pulled.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean dog! Leggo! Leggo!" screamed Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>The desperation in his voice finally had an effect on Red's tender
+heart. He let go of his end of the leg of lamb so suddenly that Jerry
+sat down hard. The leg of lamb fell in the dirt.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 402px;">
+<img src="images/image022.png" width="402" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>Jerry brushed off bits of gravel from his Sunday dinner.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> Red's teeth
+marks didn't show unless you looked very closely. Jerry wrapped the
+leg of lamb in the torn paper bag. It was a lucky thing he had come
+out of the barbershop before Red had run off with it. "That dog is
+getting to be a nuisance," he thought. But he really liked Red and had
+often wished he were one of the Martin family instead of belonging to
+a neighbor.</p>
+
+<p>It was uphill most of the way home. Jerry got pretty tired of pulling
+his heavy cart. He wished he could think up a way of motorizing it,
+fix it up like sort of a four-wheeled motor scooter. Maybe put an
+engine on the back like an outboard motor. Such speculations helped
+pass the time, but he was tired before he got home.</p>
+
+<p>It was disappointing to find that the doughnuts had been fried and put
+away. And Mrs. Martin, dressed for town, scolded Jerry soundly for
+being over an hour going to the store.</p>
+
+<p>"I had to postpone making my cake," she said sharply, "for if Cathy
+and I are to get any shopping done and get back in time for lunch, we
+have to start. You'll have to look after Andy. Take him with you but
+keep an eye on him if you go out with the boys."</p>
+
+<p>"Other boys don't have to have their little brothers tagging along,"
+complained Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't try my patience too far or you won't go out at all."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry saw a look in his mother's eyes that made him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> wary of making
+her any more displeased with him than she already was.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, I'll take him. If Red follows us to the park Andy can play
+with him and keep that big nuisance from trying to play ball with us."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was relieved when his mother unpacked the groceries and did not
+notice that anything unusual had happened to the leg of lamb.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's my change?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry almost got out Mr. Bartlett's eight dollars and twenty-one
+cents. Hastily he switched his hand to another pocket for the one
+dollar and seventy-nine cents due his mother. He handed it over, his
+eyes downcast. For some reason he did not want to meet his mother's
+eye just then. Whenever she looked him straight in the eye, Jerry had
+always found it next to impossible to keep anything from her.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for going to the store for me. But honestly, Jerry, you're
+too old for me to have to tell you every time not to stop and play on
+the way home," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Play! So that was what she thought he had been doing. Little did she
+know how little like play it was. Jerry had to stifle the impulse to
+tell her all he had been through in the past hour and a half.</p>
+
+<p>"Saturday's a busy time at the grocery stores," he said.</p>
+
+<p>His mother let that pass for an excuse. She was in a hurry to be off.
+And Jerry could tell that his twin sister was pleased with his being
+stuck with looking after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> Andy while she was off admiring herself in
+store mirrors.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let Andy lose his windbreaker," she warned in an almost grownup
+manner. Trying to button her jacket and hold on to her red patent
+leather handbag at the same time, she dropped the bag and its contents
+spilled on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>With horror Jerry saw that Cathy had been carrying a lipstick of shiny
+gold-colored metal. "Don't tell me you've taken to using lipstick! You
+trying to look like a clown?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's just from the dime store. To use if my lips get chapped. Take
+your foot off that, Jerry Martin. Oh, you've bent it," she cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Want me to wipe away your tears?" taunted Jerry. That was his latest
+favorite remark. He said it whether it was appropriate or not, liking
+the sound of it and the reaction it drew from family and playmates.
+Now Cathy tossed her head and glared at him.</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>was</i> sorry that Andy broke your model satellite but now I'm not."</p>
+
+<p>"Who cares?"</p>
+
+<p>"Make Jerry stop being so aggravating," Cathy begged her mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on. We haven't time to try to reform your brother this morning.
+Be a good boy, Andy. Mind Jerry. Don't let your little brother out of
+your sight, Jerry."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was relieved when his mother and sister had gone. It gave him a
+chance to find a good hiding place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> for Mr. Bartlett's eight dollars
+and twenty-one cents. Somewhere up attic would be the best place, he
+decided.</p>
+
+<p>"You play with your blocks. I have to go up attic for a minute," Jerry
+told Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go with you."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you don't."</p>
+
+<p>It took several minutes to get Andy so interested in his toys that he
+consented to be left while Jerry went up attic. Then he dashed up two
+flights of stairs. Now where should he hide the money? In the drawer
+of that old chest? No, his mother was forever cleaning out drawers. In
+one of the garment bags in which were hung out-of-season clothes? That
+might do. He would need the hiding place only for the month of
+April&mdash;before warm weather. Because it was a cool day it seemed to
+Jerry that it would be ages before anybody needed summer clothes. He
+put Mr. Bartlett's money in one of his mother's shoes, a white one he
+found in the bottom of one of the garment bags.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 376px;">
+<img src="images/image027.png" width="376" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>Jerry felt that he had been engaged in quite an enterprise. "And I've
+not gone to all this work just for myself," he argued in his mind as
+he zipped up the garment bag. "I'm doing it for the whole family. For
+I'm not going to hog the candy for myself. Course I may help myself to
+a piece or two when I get it. No, I'll bring the whole box home and
+pass it around," he decided generously. "And if Dad is convinced, and
+that box of free candy should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> convince him that it <i>is</i> a good thing
+to charge groceries at Bartlett's, we'll go on charging them. Every
+month. At the end of a year I bet we'll have gotten more than five
+pounds of free candy. Oh, boy!"</p>
+
+<p>Small footsteps sounded and there was Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"Downstairs was lonesome," he said plaintively.</p>
+
+<p>"Okay, I'm all through with what I was doing up here. I'll get my bat
+and ball and we'll go out."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll play ball with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell you what you can do, Andy. I'll let you hold my catcher's mitt
+when I'm not using it. And I'll throw you a few easy ones. You're old
+enough to begin to learn to play baseball."</p>
+
+<p>Andy looked so pleased that Jerry's heart warmed to him. He decided
+that when Mr. Bartlett presented that box of candy, Andy should have
+the first pick.</p>
+
+<p>"He can have his choice of any piece in the box," thought Jerry
+benevolently. And waited quite patiently while Andy came down the
+stairs slowly all the way like a grownup and not two feet on the same
+step like a baby. Sometimes Jerry did not mind having Andy tag along
+as much as he made out.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>3</h2>
+
+<h2>P. T. A. Meeting</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Why did it have to be pleasant all week and then rain on Saturday?"
+thought Jerry unhappily the following Saturday. He watched the rain
+slant against the front windows for a while and then picked up the
+morning paper to reread the comics. "April showers may bring May
+flowers, but it's tough on baseball," he said to himself.</p>
+
+<p>Andy came in the living room. He had a much folded and unfolded sheet
+of paper in his hand. "Help me learn my piece, will you, Jerry? I can
+read pictures but not hard words. But I know most of my piece. Cathy
+teached me."</p>
+
+<p>Andy was to make his first public appearance at the P. T. A. meeting
+Monday evening. His kindergarten class was to perform a short play
+about Goldilocks and the three bears. Once a year the Oakhurst
+elementary school put on a program by the pupils for the parents. This
+year Cathy was to sing in a girls' chorus and Jerry, one of a rhythm
+band, was to shake bells during the playing of "The Stars and Stripes
+Forever" by John Philip Sousa. Andy had an important part on the
+program. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> was to speak a poem to introduce the play about
+Goldilocks. Miss Prouty, his teacher, called it the prologue. Andy
+called it his log piece.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry took the grimy piece of paper. "Let's hear it," he told Andy.
+"Shoot."</p>
+
+<p>Andy stood with his legs far apart, his head tilted upward as if he
+were reading his "piece" from the ceiling. His usually merry face
+looked solemn, his dark eyes worried. Hardly above a whisper he
+recited:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">We welcome you, dear parents,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And hope you'll like our play.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">'Twas written by Miss Prouty's class<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Just for the P. T. A.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"How could your class write a play when you don't even know how to
+write?" asked Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"I can print all my name," said Andy in his normal voice. "Miss Prouty
+says that part of writing is thinking and saying. So she read
+'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' to us three times. Then our class
+said it to her and she wrote it down. But she wrote my log piece by
+herself."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better say the first verse again and a lot louder," Jerry
+suggested. "Nobody will hear you if you don't speak good and loud."</p>
+
+<p>So Andy said the first verse again good and loud. He made the phrase
+"Just for the P. T. A." sound like a football yell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Good! That ought to wow 'em. Now say the next verse."</p>
+
+<p>Again Andy's eyes sought the ceiling.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">You may have heard the story<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of this girl with golden hair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who lost her way in a dark wood&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Andy could not remember what came next.</p>
+
+<p>"Belonging to a bear," Jerry prompted. "I don't remember that the
+story said anything about Papa Bear owning the woods, but maybe he
+did. Go on, Andy."</p>
+
+<p>Andy could not remember any of the last verse, so Jerry read it to him
+slowly.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I won't go on with the story,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For our play will now portray<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What happened to little Goldilocks<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The day she lost her way.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Say it, Andy," urged Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>Andy pouted. "I don't want to. I hate my log piece," he said fiercely.
+"I wanted to be the great big bear. I wanted to say, 'Who's been
+eating my porridge?' I can talk the loudest. But Ned Brooks is going
+to be the great big bear." Andy's lower lip quivered. He looked ready
+to bawl.</p>
+
+<p>"Want to hear some keen poetry?" asked Jerry, hoping to cheer Andy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Andy showed no sign of wanting to but Jerry did not wait for
+encouragement. With a lilt of enjoyment in his voice he said a rhyme
+he had learned sometime&mdash;he could not remember when or where.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Gene, Gene&mdash;had a machine.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Joe, Joe&mdash;made it go.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Frank, Frank&mdash;turned the crank.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His mother came out and gave him a spank,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And threw him over a sandbank.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The last two lines Jerry said very rapidly, coming out good and strong
+on the word <i>sandbank</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Like April weather Andy's stormy face turned sunny. "Say it again," he
+said delightedly.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry obliged.</p>
+
+<p>"Say it again," Andy begged when Jerry had finished the second time.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, what do you think I am, a phonograph record?" asked Jerry. But
+he good-naturedly recited the rhyme a third time.</p>
+
+<p>"I can say it," cried Andy. And he recited the rhyme without
+forgetting a word.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, you can learn like a shot when you really want to," said Jerry
+admiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think that's a nice poem to teach to Andy," said Cathy, who
+had come in and listened to her small brother.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to know why not?" asked Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"Poetry should be beautiful," said Cathy dreamily. "Like that poem
+Miss Kitteridge read us day before yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>"Life has loveliness to sell," quoted Cathy.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 368px;">
+<img src="images/image034.png" width="368" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>"Blah! That stinks," said Jerry. "But I liked it when Miss Kitteridge
+read us 'Casey at the Bat.' That's <i>good</i> poetry."</p>
+
+<p>"Not as good as poetry by Sara Teasdale."</p>
+
+<p>"It is, too."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no law that says that everybody has to like the same kind of
+poetry," said Mrs. Martin from the doorway. "You twins don't have to
+show dispositions to match the weather. Just because it's unpleasant
+you don't need to be. I want you to run to the store, Jerry, and get
+two pounds or a little over of haddock. I had intended to have cold
+roast beef for dinner but it's such a chilly day I think a good New
+England fish chowder will just hit the spot."</p>
+
+<p>"But I went to the store this morning," protested Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"And you took time enough getting home with them to have grown the
+vegetables and slaughtered the meat."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry looked at the floor. "I'll go," he said in a dull voice as if
+the burden of life was heavy.</p>
+
+<p>With leaden feet Jerry went out to the garage for his bike. He had a
+five-dollar bill in his mother's coin purse and he was worrying about
+how he was going to get it changed. Every time his mother had asked
+him to go to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> the store all week Jerry had worried about getting the
+right change. This morning had been the worst. He had had to take his
+cart again and that had slowed him up. Then when he had walked in the
+rain all the long way to the shopping centre, George, the barber, had
+not been a bit obliging.</p>
+
+<p>George had been busy when Jerry had come in the barbershop. Nor did he
+look up when Jerry spoke to him, giving him a pleasant "Good morning."
+Of course Jerry had waited until George was not busy before asking him
+for change for a ten. Jerry needed only forty cents to take back to
+his mother this time. George had been very reluctant to change Jerry's
+bill.</p>
+
+<p>"You're getting to be a nuisance, running in to get bills changed,"
+George had complained. But he had given Jerry nine dollars in bills
+and a dollar in change for his ten.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry dreaded to have to ask George for change twice the same day. He
+had never had to do that before. But where else could he get change?
+All the way to the store he worried.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was the only customer in Bartlett's store. And Mr. Bartlett did
+have some nice haddock. Jerry had hoped he would be out of fish but no
+such luck.</p>
+
+<p>"Nasty day," said Mr. Bartlett, as he weighed the fish.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry agreed. It seemed to him to be a particularly nasty day. He put
+the grocery slip in his pocket and hurried out of the store. Even the
+sight of the candy in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> showcase had not lifted his spirits. The
+half pound of candy he might get when he paid the bill at the end of
+the month seemed a small reward for all he was going through to earn
+it. "Only three weeks to go," he told himself, putting the package of
+fish in his bicycle basket. But three weeks seemed a long time.</p>
+
+<p>Maybe it hadn't been a good idea, this charging business. But it was
+no good time to stop now. He would have no candy to present to his
+parents to prove the advantage of charging groceries at Bartlett's.
+No, having begun, Jerry had to see it through.</p>
+
+<p>"Might as well get killed for a sheep as a lamb," Jerry thought,
+riding through a puddle on his way to the shopping center. It was a
+remark he had heard his father make, and seemed somehow appropriate.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry had to wait and wait before George would notice him.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't tell me you've come again for change!" George cried. "I won't
+give it to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Please, just this one time," Jerry pleaded. "I have to have it.
+Honest."</p>
+
+<p>Grumbling, George went to the cash register and changed the bill. Then
+he took Jerry firmly by the shoulder. "Out you go and stay out. I
+don't want to see hide nor hair of you again until you need your next
+haircut. Understand?"</p>
+
+<p>Jerry understood. He realized that getting bills changed at the
+barbershop was over.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 365px;">
+<img src="images/image037.png" width="365" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+<p>Jerry was not his usual buoyant self over the weekend. His mother
+thought he might be getting a cold and gave him vitamin pills and made
+him drink extra orange juice. She knew something was troubling him but
+could not get out of him what it was. Jerry shut a door of
+communication between them. He found it lonely, having to be on his
+guard against blurting out his secret.</p>
+
+<p>At a little after seven on Monday evening, the whole Martin family
+piled in the car to go to the P. T. A. meeting. It was unusual for the
+children to go to a P. T. A. but not for Mr. and Mrs. Martin. Jerry
+and Cathy insisted that their parents go to the meetings, for a count
+was made and the class represented by the most parents got an award.
+Now that Andy was in kindergarten both parents stood up when the count
+was for Miss Prouty's room. And Mr. and Mrs. Martin stood up to be
+counted twice for the sixth grade.</p>
+
+<p>All the Martins but Andy took seats near the front of the auditorium.
+He had to go immediately behind scenes on the stage, since the play he
+was to be in was to come first on the program. That was in order to
+allow the parents of the kindergartners to take them home early if
+they so wished.</p>
+
+<p>Andy had looked a bit pale when he left his family.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope he's not so excited he'll throw up," Cathy said worriedly. "He
+looks pretty scared."</p>
+
+<p>"Scared? Andy scared? Of course he's not scared,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> said Jerry stoutly,
+though he knew very well that Andy really was scared and was only
+defending him.</p>
+
+<p>"Anyway, he knows his piece," said Cathy. "He said it over to me three
+times before dinner and didn't make a mistake."</p>
+
+<p>Before the curtain went up, Miss Kurtz, the principal, made a short
+speech about giving parents an opportunity to share in the school
+activities of their children. She spoke about the importance of
+creativity, a long word Jerry did not quite understand, but thought
+meant making up things. Then the curtain rose and there was the bears'
+house. Only it didn't have any upstairs. Goldilocks wasn't there yet
+but the porridge was on the table in a big, a medium, and a tiny bowl.
+And here came Andy, walking stiffly to the front of the stage. He
+looked very small.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry saw that his father and mother looked anxious, as anxious as
+Jerry felt. "Come on, Andy. Say it and get it over with," Jerry
+muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"Sh-sh," said Cathy.</p>
+
+<p>The audience looked at Andy and Andy looked at them. Seconds passed.
+Andy did not utter a word.</p>
+
+<p>From behind scenes Miss Prouty prompted him.</p>
+
+<p>"We welcome you, dear parents," she said in a voice barely audible to
+the audience.</p>
+
+<p>Andy's lips did not move. His face looked frozen in fright. He just
+stood there.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Miss Prouty prompted him again. Still Andy did not open his mouth.
+Some boy near the back of the hall clapped. That sound seemed to wake
+Andy from his trance of fear. He raised his head and gave the audience
+a large, beaming smile. Then Andy spoke his piece.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Gene, Gene&mdash;had a machine.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Joe, Joe&mdash;made it go.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Frank, Frank&mdash;turned the crank.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His mother came out and gave him a spank<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And threw him over a sandbank.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Andy spoke up nice and loud and then made a bow. Apparently he did not
+realize that he had spoken the wrong piece.</p>
+
+<p>The auditorium suddenly rocked with laughter. Miss Prouty shooed Andy
+off the stage and apologized for him. Then she spoke the "Dear
+parents" poem herself.</p>
+
+<p>Cathy just had time to whisper angrily to Jerry, "It's all your
+fault&mdash;you taught him that awful rhyme," before Andy came to sit with
+his family. He did not seem at all upset and apparently enjoyed the
+program, though he yawned a few times before it was over.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody said it had been a good program. In the car going home, Mr.
+Martin said he could hear Cathy's voice above the other girls', sweet
+as a bird. And Mrs. Martin said that Jerry had rung his bells exactly
+on time and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> very nicely. They carefully avoided mentioning anything
+about Andy's piece.</p>
+
+<p>They were just getting out of the car when Andy broke into loud wails
+of extreme sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>"I said the wrong piece," he sobbed. "I said the wrong piece and
+everybody laughed at me."</p>
+
+<p>"Never you mind, son. Folks enjoy a good laugh," said Mr. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there!" Andy's mother soothed him. "We all make mistakes. He's
+getting a delayed reaction," she told the others. "And it's long past
+his bedtime."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry really felt sorry for Andy. "Tell you what, Andy, I promise I'll
+take you to the zoo next Saturday. You'll like that, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to see the loud animals. I want to go see the quiet
+ones," said Andy, sniffing though his sobs had ceased.</p>
+
+<p>"Okay, I'll take you to the Museum of Natural History," agreed Jerry,
+understanding that by "loud" Andy meant alive and by "quiet" he meant
+stuffed animals.</p>
+
+<p>"Ned Brooks hollered so loud my ears hurt. He sounded like this.
+'Who's been eating <i>my</i> porridge?'" Andy bellowed the words so loud
+that his mother put her hands over her ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes I think I would prefer quiet children," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Andy began speaking for Baby Bear, his voice tiny. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> was in high
+spirits again. Jerry wished that all his fret and worry about the
+charge account and getting change could disappear as easily as Andy's
+sorrow. During the P. T. A. meeting Jerry had pushed his worries to
+the background of his thoughts. Now he found them right up front
+again. The next time his mother sent him to the store, where was he to
+go to get change now that George the barber had failed him?</p>
+
+<p>The family drank hot chocolate and ate cookies in the kitchen before
+going to bed. The half-melted marshmallows on top gave Andy a white
+mustache before his mother wiped his face with a napkin. He got in her
+lap and snuggled against her while she sipped her chocolate. When you
+were little like Andy you were easily forgiven for almost anything,
+Jerry thought, his conscience troubled about the charge account.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was finishing his second cup of hot chocolate when an easy
+solution to the change problem dawned on him. He had made several
+trips to the store this week and each time put away Mr. Bartlett's
+money in bills and small change. There must be money enough up attic
+in that white shoe to change a five and probably a ten. Yes, Jerry was
+sure he could change a ten. "I can make my own change," he thought
+happily. And suddenly the charge account seemed a good scheme again.</p>
+
+<p>"You look mighty pleased with yourself, Jerry," said his mother.</p>
+
+<p>"I just thought of something."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What?" asked Cathy.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you sometime," Jerry promised.</p>
+
+<p>"Why does Jerry have to act so darned mysterious lately?" Cathy
+complained to her mother.</p>
+
+<p>"A boy has a right to keep a few things to himself," said Mrs. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was grateful to his mother for taking his part. "When I get that
+candy from Bartlett's," he thought, "I won't forget that I've promised
+the first piece to Andy. But my mother will get the next piece."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry thought of his mother reaching in the box for a pink mint and
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You're up to something. I can tell it by the way you look," remarked
+Cathy.</p>
+
+<p>He would have to be on his guard against Cathy, Jerry realized. Up
+till now he had found it almost impossible to keep a secret from his
+twin sister.</p>
+
+<p>"Want me to wipe away your tears?" he jibed. It seemed mean to say
+something on purpose to make Cathy mad but that would take her mind
+off being curious.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>4</h2>
+
+<h2>No Safe Hiding Place</h2>
+
+
+<p>The next week was not as trying to Jerry as the week before, now that
+he was able to make change up attic. Yet it grew increasingly
+difficult to dodge Cathy. Time after time she caught up with him
+either coming up or going down the attic stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you doing up attic?" she kept asking.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," he would say. Or, "Don't you wish you knew?" He even told
+her that she would know all there was to know about it in less than a
+month, that is, if there were anything to know. This last statement
+was the truth, though Cathy did not believe him. She kept hounding
+him.</p>
+
+<p>On Saturday, though it was a good day for baseball, Jerry remembered
+his promise to take Andy to see the "quiet" animals. Since their
+mother did not have time to drive them to town, they took a bus. It
+was a short walk from the bus stop to the Museum of Natural History,
+one of the buildings of the Smithsonian Institution, but Jerry knew
+the way.</p>
+
+<p>Although the Smithsonian had just opened, there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> were already two big
+buses unloading at the front door. <i>East Liverpool</i>, the signs on the
+buses said. That was in Ohio, Jerry told his small brother. And the
+big boys and girls getting out of the buses were doubtless members of
+a high school graduating class on a tour of Washington.</p>
+
+<p>"People come from all over the United States to see Washington,
+especially this time of year when the cherry blossoms are out," said
+Jerry. "Guess they wish they were like us and lived here." It suddenly
+seemed pretty nice to Jerry to live in a city so important that it was
+visited by people from all parts of the country.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd rather live out West with the cowboys," said Andy. He never would
+believe that ever so many people out West were not cowboys or Indians.</p>
+
+<p>Before going to see the stuffed animals Andy wanted to take a look at
+his favorite dinosaur. There were other dinosaurs in the exhibit but
+Andy always devoted himself to the one nearest the entrance. "Dip," he
+called the enormous skeleton, though its full name was <i>Diplodocus</i>.
+Jerry was interested in reading that the bones of this dinosaur had
+been found out in Utah and that it was seventy feet long and twelve
+feet high. Andy did not care about details.</p>
+
+<p>"Good old Dip!" said Andy, and gazed at his bony friend with great
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>The boys lingered a long time looking at the "quiet" animals. Andy
+wished that he could have one of the two bear cubs to take home with
+him, now that he was too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> old to play with Teddy bears. He also
+thought it would be fun to learn to ride a tame buffalo.</p>
+
+<p>"You can't tame a buffalo," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> could," said Andy with complete confidence. "Now I want to see
+the Indians."</p>
+
+<p>The boys looked at displays of Indians doing a snake dance, Indians
+weaving baskets, grinding corn, weaving rugs, playing games&mdash;or just
+standing, being Indians.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did they find so many Indians to stuff?" asked Andy.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry barely stopped himself from giving a loud ha-ha. He decided not
+to laugh at his little brother. After seeing so many stuffed animals
+it was a natural thing for Andy to think the Indians were also
+stuffed. They certainly looked real.</p>
+
+<p>"They don't stuff people," Jerry explained kindly. "The Indians are
+sort of statues, only some of them have more clothes on."</p>
+
+<p>Andy seemed a bit disappointed that they were not real Indians.</p>
+
+<p>After a quick trip upstairs to see an enormous whale, Jerry and Andy
+were through with the museum. Having had nothing to eat since
+breakfast, they were naturally half-starved, so, although it was now
+only eleven-thirty, they decided to have lunch. Their mother had given
+them lunch money. There was no lunchroom near the museum. They had to
+walk way up to Pennsylvania Avenue before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> they found a cafeteria.
+Then they had a satisfying lunch of hamburgers, milk, lemon pie, and
+chocolate layer cake.</p>
+
+<p>Being downtown gave both boys a sort of holiday feeling and they were
+in no hurry to go home. For Jerry it was a reprieve from his worry
+about the charge account, which by now had become a burden. Once
+having picked it up, he had to go on carrying it. Here in town with
+Andy, the weight seemed less heavy.</p>
+
+<p>"While we're so near, we may as well go take a look at the cherry
+blossoms," suggested Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>Andy did not much care about flowers he was not allowed to pick but he
+let himself be persuaded. On their way to the Tidal Basin, where the
+cherry blossoms were, they were not far from the Washington Monument,
+with its circle of flags blowing in the breeze. Andy teased to go up
+in the Monument but Jerry said there were too many people waiting in
+line.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll do it some other time," he promised.</p>
+
+<p>It pleased Andy that he was doing something with Jerry again. He took
+big steps to match Jerry's.</p>
+
+<p>Near the Tidal Basin there were people taking pictures of each other
+under the flowering trees. Along the path close to the water, men,
+women, and young people were walking. There, the cherry trees bent
+over the basin to see themselves reflected in the quiet depths.</p>
+
+<p>Andy sniffed the air. "Smells nice," he said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Jerry could understand why so many people came to Washington to see
+the cherry blossoms. "They're really something," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"The pinky trees look like strawberry ice cream cones," said Andy,
+which for him was high praise. Strawberry was his favorite ice cream.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly four before Jerry and Andy got home. The house next door
+to theirs had been vacant so long that they were surprised to see a
+moving van in front of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you know? Somebody must have bought the house. Wonder
+what they'll be like," mused Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>They stood and watched the movers take in a long green sofa, a table,
+and several cartons.</p>
+
+<p>"I want something to eat," said Andy.</p>
+
+<p>So did Jerry. It was a long time since lunch. "What can we have to
+eat?" he called to his mother just as soon as he was in the back door.
+He and Andy went looking for their mother and found her sitting by a
+window in the living room, which overlooked the house next door. She
+was watching the moving.</p>
+
+<p>"We saw all the quiet animals and Dip and the pretend Indians," Andy
+informed his mother. "I'm hungry."</p>
+
+<p>"You can have cookies and a glass of milk but don't touch the cake.
+That's for dessert tonight."</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Cathy?" Jerry thought to ask.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Seems as if she said something about looking for something up attic,"
+said Mrs. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry forgot his hunger. It seemed to him a sneaky thing for Cathy to
+do, to go searching the attic while he was out of the house. Had she
+found Mr. Bartlett's money? If she had she would have been downstairs
+with it. But any second she might find it. Jerry rushed for the
+stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Breathless, he arrived at the top of the second flight.</p>
+
+<p>The attic was unfinished&mdash;low under the two gables. Against one of the
+high walls hung a row of garment bags. Mr. Bartlett's money was in the
+third one. Jerry tried to keep from looking at it. Cathy was smart
+enough to watch where he was looking. She was busy tossing stuff out
+of the bottom drawer of an old chest of drawers.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think you're doing?" Jerry asked her.</p>
+
+<p>"Mummy's going to house-clean up here Monday. I'm helping by clearing
+out drawers."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean you're snooping around to see what you can find."</p>
+
+<p>Cathy stopped pawing in the drawer. "So you <i>are</i> hiding something up
+here. I knew it. I knew it."</p>
+
+<p>Too late Jerry realized he had said too much. He had made Cathy more
+suspicious of him than ever.</p>
+
+<p>Cathy picked the stuff up off the floor&mdash;it was mostly cloth saved for
+mending and for rags&mdash;and crammed it in the drawer, shutting it
+crookedly. She blinked her blue eyes at Jerry. "Tell me what you're
+hiding up here. Cross my heart I won't tell on you."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 387px;">
+<img src="images/image050.png" width="387" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+<p>It irritated Jerry to have Cathy blink her eyes at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever gave you the idea I was hiding anything up here or
+anywhere?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd tell you if I had something to hide."</p>
+
+<p>"Yeah! You would not."</p>
+
+<p>"I would, too. You're mean. You're the meanest boy I ever knew."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd a darn sight rather be mean than snoopy. You're just a sneaky
+snooper, that's what you are."</p>
+
+<p>"I hate you."</p>
+
+<p>"See if I care."</p>
+
+<p>Cathy's eyes blazed with blue fire. Then Jerry was surprised to see
+them fill with tears. She got to her feet and rushed toward the
+stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Want me to wipe away your tears?" called Jerry, as she clattered down
+the stairs. The instant the words were out, he was a little ashamed of
+them. He had not meant to make her cry. Why did she have to cry so
+easy? She hadn't used to.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry couldn't figure out what had gotten into Cathy lately. All this
+caring about how she looked. All this fussing about clothes. And the
+way she blinked her eyes at boys. It was enough to make a person sick.
+Less than a year ago he had heard Cathy say that girls who used powder
+and lipstick were dopes. Now she herself was carrying a lipstick in
+her handbag. Jerry guessed she had not sunk so low she used eye makeup
+but he wouldn't put it past her almost any time. Not long ago he and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+Cathy had liked to do the same things, liked the same things. Now they
+didn't even agree about movies. Cathy actually didn't mind love in a
+picture. She even liked pictures in which the hero kissed a girl, and
+Jerry could hardly bear to see a cowboy kiss a horse. Jerry missed the
+Cathy he used to know. The way she was now made him mad.</p>
+
+<p>One thing was sure. The attic was no longer a safe place for Mr.
+Bartlett's money. Not with Cathy snooping around, for she was a good
+finder. Jerry went to the garment bag, got the money out of the white
+shoe&mdash;my but there was getting to be a lot&mdash;and put the bills in one
+pants pocket and crammed the silver into another. He would have to
+find another hiding place. But where?</p>
+
+<p>Jerry went downstairs. Cathy had joined her mother and Andy at the
+window. They were watching the movers.</p>
+
+<p>"Usually you can get an idea about what people are like by their
+furniture," Jerry heard his mother say, "but I never saw such a
+conglomeration go into any house. Our new neighbor's name is Bullfinch
+and he's a retired college professor. His having a lot of books I can
+understand but why a jungle gym? He doesn't have any children. There
+are just he and his wife."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry would have avoided being near the family until he had found a
+new hiding place for Mr. Bartlett's money if Cathy had not exclaimed,
+"Look at that! Assorted sizes of cages."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Jerry had to come and look, too, then. He saw one of the movers going
+in the house next door with a small gilded cage in one hand and a
+picture frame in the other. After him came the other moving man with a
+cage so large it was all he could carry.</p>
+
+<p>"The smaller one could be for a bird but what on earth could the big
+one be for?" Mrs. Martin was puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe he has a chimp for a pet," Jerry contributed.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven forbid!" gasped his mother.</p>
+
+<p>"But chimps are wonderful pets. Remember reading about that chimp that
+does finger painting? Her owner sells the pictures. Actually gets real
+money for them. That's more than old Andy gets for <i>his</i> finger
+painting," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"Not if I wanted to," said Andy.</p>
+
+<p>Several large oil paintings were carried into the house next door, but
+they were too far away for Jerry to judge if they had been painted by
+a chimp. He guessed not. Pictures painted by chimps weren't usually
+put in heavy gold frames. In went a tall grandfather clock, a
+full-length mirror with a gold eagle on top, an immense old-fashioned
+roll-top desk.</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw such a mixture of good antiques and trash," said Mrs.
+Martin.</p>
+
+<p>"Say," said Jerry, "if Mr. Bullfinch does have a chimp for a pet,
+maybe Andy and I can teach him finger painting. Then if we sold the
+pictures Mr. Bullfinch would give us part of the money."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 370px;">
+<img src="images/image054.png" width="370" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+<p>Cathy made a noise that showed what she thought of that idea.</p>
+
+<p>"You and your schemes!" said Mrs. Martin. She turned away from the
+window and smiled at Jerry. Then one of those especially noticing
+looks came over her face. "What on earth do you have in your pants
+pocket that drags it down? You shouldn't stuff heavy things in your
+pockets. You'll tear them and they're hard to mend."</p>
+
+<p>The next thing would be to ask him to take out whatever was weighing
+down his pocket. Jerry could sense it coming. "I just thought of
+something," he cried, and rushed from the living room. A few seconds
+later the back door slammed behind him. He had made it safely
+outdoors.</p>
+
+<p>"Whew, that was a narrow escape!" he thought. But he felt Mr.
+Bartlett's money as not only a heavy weight in his pocket but on his
+mind. "I won't dare take it back in the house, with Cathy sniffing all
+over the place. Even if she wasn't, the money wouldn't be safe up
+attic, not after my mother gets to house-cleaning up there. She
+doesn't miss a thing. And the cellar would be no good. My father is
+always hunting around down there for screws and paint and stuff he's
+put away and can't remember where. But what the heck am I going to do
+with Mr. Bartlett's money now?"</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>5</h2>
+
+<h2>New Neighbors</h2>
+
+
+<p>Jerry thought of burying Mr. Bartlett's money somewhere in the yard.
+He gave up that idea when he considered the complication of digging it
+up every time he came back from the store and had to make change.
+Besides, this time of year his mother was likely to be planting
+flowers all over the place.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry decided he might as well watch the moving in next door while he
+was trying to think of a safe hiding place for Mr. Bartlett's money.
+Better keep out of sight from the front window of his house, though.
+Jerry climbed the picket fence that separated his yard from Mr.
+Bullfinch's. Then, crouching low, he ran from bush to bush and took
+his stand in front of a weigela bush that screened him from being seen
+by his family.</p>
+
+<p>The movers were big, brawny men. Jerry saw them lift a huge wardrobe
+as if it were light as a feather. Nearly as light, anyway. As they
+took it in the house, a man came out. He was tall and thin and
+slightly stooped, with a thatch of silver-gray hair. Must be Mr.
+Bullfinch, Jerry thought, and wondered if he shouldn't leave before
+being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> asked to. Jerry had learned that you never can tell about
+people wanting you or not wanting you in their yards.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bullfinch saw Jerry and walked toward him. He smiled with his
+whole face, especially his eyes, and Jerry smiled back a bit shyly. "I
+like to watch people moving in," Jerry said.</p>
+
+<p>"So do I except when I'm the one being moved. Live around here, do
+you? Seems a pleasant neighborhood."</p>
+
+<p>"Next door. It <i>is</i> a nice neighborhood. A few cranky people on this
+street but not many. Say, what a whopper of a chair!"</p>
+
+<p>The movers had taken an enormous brown leather chair out of the van
+and were taking it in the front door.</p>
+
+<p>"I have to tell them where I want it put. Come on in," Mr. Bullfinch
+invited Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry always enjoyed going in a strange house. He tagged after Mr.
+Bullfinch as he directed the movers to deposit the big chair in front
+of the fireplace in the den.</p>
+
+<p>"Some chair! Is it for you to sit in?" asked Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a remarkable chair. It does tricks. Runs by electricity," said
+Mr. Bullfinch, taking an electric cord from the seat and unwinding it.
+He looked around and found an outlet and put in the plug. "Want to try
+it out?" he asked Jerry. "Sit down in the chair and press the button
+on the right arm and see what happens."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was not at all sure he wanted to try out the tricks of the
+chair. "I don't know if I have time right now," he said. Mr. Bullfinch
+did not look like the sort of man who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> would install an electric
+chair, the kind they have in penitentiaries, in his house and begin to
+execute his neighbors the first day he moved in. Still, better be safe
+than sorry, Jerry reasoned.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll show you how it works," said Mr. Bullfinch, sitting down in the
+chair. He pressed a button to the right, and the back of the chair
+went down and the part that hung down in front came up, making what
+looked like a narrow cot.</p>
+
+<p>"That's not half of it," said Mr. Bullfinch, punching another button.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry gasped as the right arm of the chair swung over and began to rub
+Mr. Bullfinch's stomach while the whole contraption jerked up and
+down.</p>
+
+<p>"Takes plenty of power to do that," said Mr. Bullfinch from his
+reclining position. "I shudder to think of what my electric bill will
+be if I use it often." He laughed heartily. "It tickles." Then he
+pushed the button that stopped the jerking and massaging and the one
+that made the chair regain its chair-like appearance. And there was
+Mr. Bullfinch sitting up again, looking just the same except that his
+hair was a little rumpled.</p>
+
+<p>"It's supposed to reduce you if you're too fat and build you up if
+you're too thin. It's an exerciser and health builder. Trade name for
+it is the Excello. Believe I'll call it the Bumper. It does thump and
+bump a bit, you know. Now do you want to try it?"</p>
+
+<p>It was nice of Mr. Bullfinch to forget that Jerry had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> just said he
+didn't have time to try it out. Jerry warmed to his new neighbor. So
+now he sat in the big chair and pushed the buttons, roaring with
+laughter when the right arm of the chair began to massage his stomach.</p>
+
+<p>"You have hardly enough middle to rub," said Mr. Bullfinch. He didn't
+hurry Jerry. He let him try out the chair for as long as he wanted to.</p>
+
+<p>When Jerry got up out of the chair the paper bag containing all of Mr.
+Bartlett's change fell from his pocket. The bag broke and the money
+rolled in all directions.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bullfinch helped Jerry pick up the money. Not having another paper
+bag at hand, Mr. Bullfinch gave Jerry a worn tobacco pouch to put the
+money in. He did not ask why Jerry happened to be carrying so much
+money in his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Ever go to auctions?" asked Mr. Bullfinch, as Jerry crammed the
+tobacco pouch in his pants pocket. The pocket tore slightly. His
+mother would be after him for that, Jerry thought worriedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Double darn!" said Jerry. "I'm not talking to you&mdash;I'm just sorry I
+tore my pocket," Jerry said to Mr. Bullfinch.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, 'double darn' seems an appropriate remark for a torn pocket,"
+said Mr. Bullfinch. "Did you say you'd ever been to an auction?"</p>
+
+<p>Jerry hadn't and said so.</p>
+
+<p>"Auctions are my hobby," said Mr. Bullfinch. "People need to have a
+hobby when they retire and mine is auctions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> Greatest sport I know
+of. Course you're likely to pick up a few things you haven't any
+immediate need for but at least you get something for your money. Mrs.
+Bullfinch scolds me sometimes for what I buy but I can't resist the
+fun of bidding. Up to a point, that is. I set myself a limit on what
+I'll spend at an auction. Guess I do get stuck with some strange
+objects once in a while. You should have seen Mrs. Bullfinch's face
+when I brought home a job lot of empty cages."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you have pets to put in any of them?" Jerry's face showed his
+disappointment. If not a chimp he had hoped for a parrot or at least a
+canary.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a one," said Mr. Bullfinch. "Guess I'll have to wait till they
+auction off some of the animals in the Washington zoo."</p>
+
+<p>"They'll never do that."</p>
+
+<p>"I was only joking. Do you have any pets?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just a cat named Bibsy because she has a white front. Like a bib, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if I see a mouse around here I hope you'll lend me Bibsy."</p>
+
+<p>"I will." Jerry sensed that Mr. Bullfinch thought it was time for him
+to be leaving. And Jerry was about to when a woman screamed loud as a
+fire siren.</p>
+
+<p>"My wife!" cried Mr. Bullfinch and rushed toward the back of the
+house, Jerry following him.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 381px;">
+<img src="images/image061.png" width="381" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>Out in the kitchen, standing on a high stool, was Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> Bullfinch.
+She was a small plump woman wearing a pink apron. She looked
+terrified.</p>
+
+<p>"A spider!" she gasped. "I had a broom and was making sure there were
+no spiders around the ceiling when the biggest spider I've ever seen
+in my life ran down the broom handle. It ran right across my arm." She
+shuddered till the stool she was standing on shook. "I brushed it off.
+It was horrible. I didn't see where it went but it's in this room
+somewhere. And I won't get off this stool until it's found and
+killed."</p>
+
+<p>"Better get down, dear," said her husband. "There are two of us here
+to protect you." He looked around the room for the spider, opening
+cupboard doors to see if it had run in a cupboard. "It's taken off for
+parts unknown by this time," he said soothingly. "Come on, get down.
+You'll want to tell the movers where to put the piano."</p>
+
+<p>"It's still in this room. I know it. If I get down it might run up my
+leg. Oh, dear! Oh, dear!"</p>
+
+<p>She was pretty heavy for that stool, Jerry thought, expecting one of
+its legs to crack any minute. She's like Little Miss Muffett, afraid
+of spiders&mdash;only she climbed a stool instead of being frightened away.
+He glanced down at the broom on the floor where Mrs. Bullfinch had
+thrown it. A large hairy spider was just crawling out of the
+broomstraws.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry had never moved more quickly. Three steps and he had brought his
+foot down hard. Jerry did not enjoy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> killing even a spider but this
+time it seemed necessary, though he carefully refrained from looking
+at the dead insect.</p>
+
+<p>"Good boy!" said Mr. Bullfinch.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bullfinch, with a little help from her husband, got down from the
+stool. She thanked Jerry earnestly and effusively.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll not forget this. Someday I hope to do something for you. You
+don't know how obliged to you I am. That spider might have killed me."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry did not think that the spider had been the kind that would have
+a bite that killed. Being thought a hero was pleasant, however. "Think
+nothing of it," he said, looking more cocky than modest in spite of
+his words.</p>
+
+<p>"Where you want the pianer?" shouted one of the movers, and Mrs.
+Bullfinch bustled off to the living room.</p>
+
+<p>There did not seem to be any reason for Jerry to stay any longer. He
+had a feeling that Mr. Bullfinch, though still very polite, had things
+he wanted to see to. So Jerry murmured something about having to get
+home and Mr. Bullfinch told him again that he was indebted to him for
+killing the spider.</p>
+
+<p>"I never knew anybody as afraid of spiders as Mrs. Bullfinch," he
+said. "Everybody has something he's afraid of, I guess. With Mrs.
+Bullfinch it's spiders."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry didn't know if he should leave by the back or the front door but
+Mr. Bullfinch led the way to the front.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> Jerry admired the grandfather
+clock in the front hall. On the glass above its face there was a
+painted globe in pale green and yellow. Jerry had almost reached the
+front door when the clock struck five&mdash;long, solemn sounds of great
+dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"That sure is a big clock," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't buy that at an auction, it was in the family," said Mr.
+Bullfinch. "When I was a little boy I once hid inside when we were
+playing hide and seek. That was the time I stopped the clock," he
+chuckled.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Jerry thought of a safe hiding place for Mr. Bartlett's
+money. What Mr. Bullfinch had said about hiding in the clock had given
+him the idea.</p>
+
+<p>"Say," he said with barely controlled excitement, "would you mind if I
+kept the money I have on me in your clock?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bartlett gave Jerry a long appraising look. Then his eyes lit up
+in one of his nice smiles. "Not at all. Not at all," he said
+cordially.</p>
+
+<p>"I may need to come and get some out or put some in now and then. If
+that would not be making too much trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. Not at all. Come any time you like. I've never run a bank
+before. New experience for me."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry could tell that Mr. Bullfinch was almost making fun of him.
+Never mind, he was letting him keep Mr. Bartlett's money in the bottom
+of the clock. And how grateful Jerry was to Mr. Bullfinch for not
+asking any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> embarrassing questions about the money! Even before he had
+shut the clock door on Mr. Bartlett's money and had started for home,
+Jerry had decided that he liked his new neighbor, Mr. Bullfinch. He
+liked him a lot.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>6</h2>
+
+<h2>"The Stars and Stripes Forever"</h2>
+
+
+<p>Jerry found it a relief not to have to worry about Cathy's snooping,
+now that he was keeping Mr. Bartlett's money next door in the
+grandfather clock. The only trouble was that stopping off at the
+Bullfinches' on his way home often took considerable time. If Mr.
+Bullfinch had been to an auction&mdash;and besides attending a weekly
+auction in town he now and then went to one in nearby Maryland or
+Virginia&mdash;Jerry always had to be shown what treasure Mr. Bullfinch had
+acquired. One day it was a worn Oriental rug, another, an incomplete
+set of fine English porcelain. The prize purchase as far as Jerry was
+concerned was an old-fashioned phonograph with a horn like a big blue
+morning glory flower. Jerry's father had a hi-fi which made records
+sound as if the musicians were right in the same room with you, but
+Jerry enjoyed the faintly mechanical sound that accompanied music
+played on the old phonograph. It was like preferring canned peaches to
+fresh ones. Nice for a change anyway.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Jerry liked to stay at the Bullfinches' long enough to listen to a
+record or two. He was not so happy about being delayed by Mrs.
+Bullfinch. She was a great talker. She told Jerry very much more than
+he cared to know about her family, Mr. Bullfinch's family, and every
+college town they had lived in while Mr. Bullfinch was teaching. He
+had, it seemed, been a Latin teacher until the demand for Latin had
+grown so small that he had thought best to switch to teaching English.</p>
+
+<p>"It was teaching Freshman English that turned his hair gray," said
+Mrs. Bullfinch. "Having so many students come to college without
+knowing how to write a grammatical sentence was a great sorrow to
+him."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry's opinion was that Mr. Bullfinch's hair had turned gray from old
+age. Mrs. Bullfinch's hair was gray, too, and she hadn't taught
+Freshman English. Jerry would have asked her what had turned her hair
+gray if he had not been afraid it would have been too long a story.
+Not that Jerry disliked Mrs. Bullfinch even though she was
+long-winded. She was kind and she made good cookies. Jerry usually
+went home from the Bullfinch house munching an oatmeal cookie.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/image068.png" width="400" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>"You took long enough getting back from the store to have gone and
+come back twice," scolded Jerry's mother an afternoon when he had
+stopped to play "The Stars and Stripes Forever" on Mr. Bullfinch's
+phonograph on his way home from the store. It was Jerry's favorite
+record, with John Philip Sousa leading his own band. One<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> reason
+Jerry liked this particular march was because he had shaken bells to
+it in the rhythm band at school. Next summer Jerry was going to take
+lessons playing a horn. He had already picked out the instrument he
+wanted to learn to play, a giant tuba in Kitt's music store downtown.
+By fall he would be ready to play in the junior high band.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was thinking of playing in a band and was not paying much
+attention to his mother's scolding, when she said something that
+shocked him into alertness.</p>
+
+<p>"Next time I want something from the store in a hurry, I'll send
+Cathy," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Honest, next time I'll come home like the wind," Jerry promised. It
+wouldn't do at all to have Cathy go to the store. Mr. Bartlett knew
+her. He might ask her if she wanted the groceries charged before she
+got the money out to pay for them. And good-by then to Jerry's secret
+charge account. "You said running errands was my chore," he reminded
+his mother. "You haven't heard me gripe about having to go to the
+store, have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not recently," his mother acknowledged. "It's something to have you
+so willing. But why can't you come right home with the groceries? Now
+I was going to make Bavarian cream for dessert tonight but you're too
+late getting back with the whipping cream."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry." Jerry really was. He was very fond of Bavarian cream.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Let's see. I have a box of gingerbread mix. And I can make applesauce
+while it's baking."</p>
+
+<p>"That will be swell," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"Go find Cathy, will you, Jerry? I wouldn't be surprised if you found
+her somewhere with her nose in a book. Tell her to come and peel the
+apples for me."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was glad to get away from his mother just then. It was not hard
+to find Cathy. She was on the window seat in the living room. Jerry
+could see the book jacket of the book she was reading. It was <i>Going
+Steady</i> and had a picture of a boy and a girl gazing fondly at each
+other while skating. Cathy was not old enough to go steady&mdash;Jerry had
+heard his mother say so&mdash;and it made Jerry sick that his twin sister
+liked to read all that guff about having dates with boys and things
+like that. Now a horse story, or a dog story&mdash;they were good reading.
+So were books about rockets, planets, dinosaurs, Abraham Lincoln, and
+ever so many other interesting subjects. Cathy liked to read good
+books like that, too, Jerry had to acknowledge, but she also had
+developed an interest in books that had falling in love in them, an
+interest Jerry not only did not share but despised.</p>
+
+<p>"Lift your big blue eyes from that lousy book," said Jerry in a
+mocking voice. "Mummy wants you to come out in the kitchen and peel
+apples."</p>
+
+<p>Cathy put down her book reluctantly. Her eyes were dreamy. She sighed.
+"I suppose it's a girl's duty to help her mother," she said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She got to her feet and glided out of the room, walking as nearly as
+she could like a movie star whose latest picture she had seen at the
+neighborhood theater the previous Saturday afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry picked up <i>Going Steady</i> and examined the cover more closely. He
+threw it down. "Cathy must have rocks in her head to like a book like
+that," he thought.</p>
+
+<p>The clock on the living room mantel struck the half hour. Five-thirty.
+Jerry had an hour to kill before time for dinner. What was there to
+do? A wave of irritation against Cathy swept over him. She ought to be
+sharing all this work and worry about the charge account. A year ago
+he could have confided in her safely. She could have been counted on
+both to keep the secret and to help him. They always stuck together,
+he and Cathy, until she had changed. Now half the time she acted as if
+she were against him. Look at the way she had snooped around the attic
+like a bum detective. If she had found the money she would have very
+likely said it was her duty to tell on him. Jerry almost never could
+know in advance how she was going to act. Almost he did not like her
+any more.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry went down to the recreation room and turned on the television.</p>
+
+<p>"Send two box tops and twenty-five cents and you will receive&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Nuts!" cried Jerry, turning it off. He didn't want to listen to kid
+stuff. It seemed long ago that he had sent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> box tops and money away
+for secret rings and pasteboard telescopes.</p>
+
+<p>He went to the bookshelves and took down <i>Black Beauty</i>. He had read
+it before but he didn't mind reading it again. He liked the book
+because he felt it showed just how a horse thought. He read until he
+was called to dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later Jerry ran into real trouble. It was nearly six and he
+had just come home from playing ball, when his mother said he had
+barely time to run to the store for a pound of cheddar cheese before
+the store closed. And the smallest she had was a five-dollar bill.
+Jerry took his bike and determined to get back in a hurry. No stopping
+to listen to a record this time, even if Mr. Bullfinch had bought some
+new old ones Jerry would like to hear.</p>
+
+<p>Not more than ten minutes after leaving the house, Jerry was ringing
+the Bullfinch doorbell. He would rush in, get his change, and be home
+in a jiffy. But nobody answered the bell. Jerry rang again, with his
+finger pressed on the bell hard. He could hear the bell ring inside.
+Still nobody came to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"But they're always home this time of day," Jerry worried. He decided
+it was no use to keep on ringing the bell. "They should have told me
+they weren't going to be home," he thought, yet he really knew there
+was no reason why they should. But he had to get in to change his
+five-dollar bill. He just had to.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"They'll probably be here any minute now," Jerry tried to reassure
+himself. "It's past time for Mrs. Bullfinch to be getting dinner." But
+what if the Bullfinches had been invited out to dinner? Jerry groaned
+at the thought. What could he do?</p>
+
+<p>"I have to get in." That was the thought that kept repeating itself in
+his mind, the thought that sent him around the house testing every
+window he could reach to see if he could find one unlocked. "They told
+me to come in any time, didn't they?" Jerry argued with himself.</p>
+
+<p>At last Jerry found a cellar window unlocked. He pushed and it swung
+in over an empty coalbin. The Bullfinches had an oil furnace but Jerry
+could see by the coal dust that there had once been coal in that bin.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be bound to get my pants dirty but I guess it will brush off."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was half in and half out of the window before he realized that
+he could not go on with it. He could not make himself break in the
+Bullfinch house. He needed to get in. He kept telling himself that
+probably the Bullfinches would not mind a bit, yet he still couldn't
+bring himself to going in a neighbor's house like a burglar.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be a sissy. What are you scared of? Nobody's going to find out.
+And if they did. I'm not going to hurt a thing."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 394px;">
+<img src="images/image074.png" width="394" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>It was no use. Jerry could not argue himself into even innocent
+housebreaking. As he was swinging his legs off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> the windowsill, he
+heard music, familiar music, "The Stars and Stripes Forever." While he
+had been fussing and fretting at the cellar window, the Bullfinches
+must have come home and Mr. Bullfinch had put on the Sousa record.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry carefully pulled the cellar window shut and ran to the front
+door again. Again he pushed the bell. Again he listened. No footsteps
+coming toward the door. And the music had stopped. But Jerry had heard
+it. He knew he had heard it. Somebody must be there. Then why didn't
+somebody come to let him in? Giving up ringing the bell, Jerry
+knocked. He even kicked the door. No response to that either. "If
+they're there they've decided not to let me in," Jerry reasoned.</p>
+
+<p>"But they like me. They wouldn't do a thing like that. I'll go and see
+if their car is in the garage and then I'll know for sure if they're
+home. I might not have heard the car come in while I was on the other
+side of the house."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry hurried out to the garage. The garage door was open. No car. It
+was obvious that the Bullfinches were still not home.</p>
+
+<p>"But I could have sworn I heard somebody inside playing 'The Stars and
+Stripes Forever.'" Jerry wondered if he had imagined he had heard the
+band music.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody's home," said a small voice. And there was Andy just outside
+the Bullfinch yard.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you suppose I know it?" barked Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>Andy ran off as a car came up the street and stopped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> with a screech
+of brakes in front of the Bullfinch house. Here were Mr. and Mrs.
+Bullfinch home at last.</p>
+
+<p>They were sorry to have kept Jerry waiting for them to get home. Mr.
+Bullfinch showed Jerry where he kept an extra key behind the mailbox,
+so if Jerry needed to get in again when they were not home, he could.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't every boy I would trust," said Mr. Bullfinch.</p>
+
+<p>Both Mr. and Mrs. Bullfinch had been to an auction in Georgetown. They
+had bought a pair of hand-wrought andirons shaped like little
+lighthouses, but Jerry did not stop to admire them. As soon as he had
+changed the five-dollar bill he was off like a shot.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Martin had the electric mixer going but she could scold above the
+noise. "Now you're home with the cheese too late for me to make cheese
+sauce for the broccoli. I'm at the end of my patience. Where on earth
+have you been? Why didn't you come straight home from the store?"</p>
+
+<p>"He stops off on his way home to see the Bullfinches," said Cathy,
+getting ice cubes out of the refrigerator to put in the water pitcher.
+"I've seen him go in."</p>
+
+<p>"Tattletale!" snarled Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"Just saying where you've seen a person isn't tattling, is it,
+Mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"You shoot off your mouth too much," accused Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you <i>do</i> over at the Bullfinches'?"</p>
+
+<p>"None of your business."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Martin shut off the mixer. "I wish you two could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> be in the same
+room without starting a cat and dog fight. Go get Andy out of the
+bathroom, Jerry. He came home looking as if he'd been in a coal mine
+and I sent him in to take a shower. Help him get dressed in a hurry.
+Dinner is about ready to dish up."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was glad his mother had her mind partly on dinner or she might
+have insisted on knowing what he did over at the Bullfinches'. He
+sighed. It was all getting too complicated. He certainly would be
+thankful when the month of the charge account was over.</p>
+
+<p>The Martins were eating dessert&mdash;it was lemon pudding with meringue on
+top, one of Jerry's favorite desserts&mdash;when the doorbell rang.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go," said Jerry, pushing back his chair.</p>
+
+<p>It was Mr. Bullfinch at the door. And the way he looked at Jerry made
+him feel all shriveled up inside. Mr. Bullfinch looked taller to Jerry
+than usual. His gray eyes were like steel. He had the tobacco pouch in
+his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Bullfinch and I don't want you to keep this at our house any
+longer," he said coldly. "I'm unpleasantly surprised at you, Jerry. I
+didn't size you up as a boy who would break into a neighbor's house.
+It's not that I mind having you go in. It's the sneaky way you went in
+through the cellar window."</p>
+
+<p>"But I didn't&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, you did. There was coal dust on the rug in my den. Though
+that I might not have noticed if you hadn't broken the record."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What record? I tell you I didn't break any record."</p>
+
+<p>"I would be willing to overlook it if you'd told me when I got home.
+You might have known I would put two and two together. I'm not sure
+it's not my duty to report you to the police. I won't this time, for
+the sake of your parents if nothing more. And you won't find the key
+to the house behind the mailbox. I gave permission to use the key to a
+boy I thought I could trust."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes as Mr. Bullfinch
+went down the steps and the walk. Never had he felt so unjustly
+accused. Nor so helpless about defending himself. Mr. Bullfinch was so
+sure Jerry had been in the house and didn't dare say so because of the
+broken record. Record! Now Jerry was sure he had not been imagining
+hearing music while he had been sitting on the sill of the cellar
+window. Somebody <i>had</i> been in there playing "The Stars and Stripes
+Forever" on the phonograph. But who? And where had he gone to so
+quickly before the Bullfinches got home? It was almost enough to make
+Jerry believe in spirits.</p>
+
+<p>On his way back to the dining room, Jerry slipped the tobacco pouch
+under the cushion of a big chair in the living room. No time for now
+to find a safer hiding place.</p>
+
+<p>"Who was it?" asked Mr. Martin, as Jerry took his place at the table
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Bullfinch. He returned something I'd left at his house." Jerry's
+eyes were on his plate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What did you leave over there?"</p>
+
+<p>Count on Cathy to want to know all of his business. "Ask me no
+questions and I'll tell you no lies," Jerry told her.</p>
+
+<p>"I can whistle," Andy suddenly boasted. "I can whistle real good. Want
+to hear me?"</p>
+
+<p>Without waiting for the wishes of his family to be expressed, Andy
+pursed up his lips and whistled. He still was not much of a whistler,
+yet from the shrill piping emerged a faint resemblance to a few bars
+of "The Stars and Stripes Forever."</p>
+
+<p>A great light dawned on Jerry. Andy at the scene of the crime. Coal
+dust on Andy. And now the clincher, his whistling "The Stars and
+Stripes Forever." It had been Andy in the Bullfinch house. Jerry was
+as sure of it as of the nose on his face. "While I was out looking in
+the garage he would have just had time to get out of the house," Jerry
+thought. "I'll make him tell. It's not fair for me to be blamed for
+something he did. Mr. Bullfinch won't be hard on Andy. He'll think
+he's too little to know better."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess we won't have any more whistling at the dinner table," Mr.
+Martin reproved Andy gently.</p>
+
+<p>Andy looked as well-scrubbed and innocent as a perfect angel. Or a
+nearly perfect angel, Jerry thought. Jerry remembered how Andy would
+shut up like a clam about something he knew he should not have done.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He can be like a can of sardines. You can't get a thing out of him
+unless you have a key," thought Jerry. And he wondered how he was
+going to pry the truth out of his little brother.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>7</h2>
+
+<h2>Working on Andy</h2>
+
+
+<p>Jerry wanted to shake the truth out of Andy before the little boy's
+bedtime. But Andy followed his mother and Cathy to the kitchen after
+dinner and conversed with them all the time they were doing the dinner
+dishes. He had a long story about how a boy had been so bad that
+morning in kindergarten that the teacher made him sit in a chair all
+the time the others were playing a hopping and singing game.</p>
+
+<p>"I could have hopped the highest. I'm a good hopper. Not a
+grasshopper, just a hopper. Want to see me hop?"</p>
+
+<p>"So it was you who were the bad boy. What did you do that was
+naughty?" asked his mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing. I didn't say it was me. Anyway, Tommy Jenks joggled my arm
+or I wouldn't have thrown a crayon at him. I didn't mean to hit him in
+the eye. Lots of times I throw things and they don't hit anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"And that's the truth," remarked Jerry, who had stalked Andy to the
+kitchen. Andy's confession encouraged Jerry. If he owned up so easy
+about throwing a crayon, it would be a cinch to get him to acknowledge
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> he had been inside the Bullfinch house before dinner. "Come on
+up to my room," Jerry invited him. "I've got something to show you."</p>
+
+<p>But it seemed that Andy didn't want to be shown anything just then.
+Usually Jerry tried to keep Andy out of his room instead of inviting
+him in. "He's not so dumb," thought Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>Andy proved very hard to corner. Jerry could not get him alone until
+Andy was in the bathroom, brushing his teeth before going to bed. Then
+Andy tried to get rid of him.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not polite to come in the bathroom when somebody's here. Mummy
+said so."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen," said Jerry. "You listen to me, Andy Martin."</p>
+
+<p>"What you want?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to own up to breaking that record over at the Bullfinch
+house."</p>
+
+<p>"What record?" Andy's voice was slightly muffled by toothpaste.</p>
+
+<p>"You know as well as I do. 'The Stars and Stripes Forever.'"</p>
+
+<p>Andy spit in the sink. There was a trace of toothpaste at the left
+corner of his mouth. His eyes were innocent. A bit puzzled maybe but
+unclouded by guilt. "I can't read the names on records."</p>
+
+<p>"But you were whistling it at dinner."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 383px;">
+<img src="images/image083.png" width="383" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>Andy hung up his toothbrush. He tried to get past Jerry but Jerry
+grabbed him. It was like holding a small<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> wild animal but Jerry held
+on. "Nobody's going to be hard on you, Andy. I <i>know</i> you were in the
+Bullfinch house playing that record."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody knows where I am but me," said Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"How did you get all that coal dust on you? You got it crawling in the
+window into the Bullfinch coalbin, didn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have a mineral collection that has a piece of coal in it. Some of
+the black must have rubbed off on me. That must have been it. I'm a
+very dirty boy. Every speck of dirt sticks to me. Mummy said so. She
+says I'm as dirty as a pig. Is a pig dirtier than a skunk, Jerry?"</p>
+
+<p>Jerry said he thought that skunks weren't usually dirty.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember that time we were out in the car and Daddy said he smelled
+skunk? Phew! It was an awful smell."</p>
+
+<p>"Andy," called his mother from the foot of the stairs. "You get to
+bed. Double quick now."</p>
+
+<p>"Jerry won't let me."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop bothering your little brother, Jerry. Come on down. I'm sure you
+have homework to do."</p>
+
+<p>Andy slid out of Jerry's hold and ran down the hall. "You can't catch
+me," he yelled.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry didn't try. Sometimes Andy was more slippery than an eel, he
+thought dolefully. Getting him to confess that he had been in the
+Bullfinch house would have to wait till tomorrow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The next morning Jerry woke up feeling heavy in spirit. He still had
+the secret of the charge account on his mind and now there was the
+added weight of Mr. Bullfinch's disappointment in him. Jerry had not
+realized how much he had valued Mr. Bullfinch's approval until he had
+lost it.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll just have to make Andy tell," thought Jerry, as he dressed in a
+hurry after his mother had called him twice.</p>
+
+<p>When Jerry came downstairs, his father was just leaving for work.
+Jerry heard the front door close. Cathy was alone in the dining room
+eating her cereal. She looked so cheerful Jerry could hardly stand it.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't sit down, you might hurt your head," she greeted him.
+Ridiculous remarks were popular with the sixth grade right now and she
+was trying out one she had heard recently.</p>
+
+<p>"Think that's funny? It stinks."</p>
+
+<p>"I was just trying to be pleasant. Mummy especially asked me to try to
+be pleasant to you even when you were aggravating. And you certainly
+<i>are</i> aggravating."</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you needn't take my head off."</p>
+
+<p>"You might be better-looking if I could."</p>
+
+<p>"Jerry! Cathy!" Mrs. Martin came in from the kitchen with a platter of
+scrambled eggs and bacon. "I'm glad your father left before he had to
+hear such bickering. He wouldn't stand for it, and neither will I.
+Either be civil to each other or don't speak."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Suits me," said Jerry. "I'll be tickled to death if Cathy stops
+ya-ka-ta-yaking."</p>
+
+<p>"He's just awful." Cathy's blue eyes appealed to her mother for
+sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>"Want me to wipe away your tears?" jibed her twin brother.</p>
+
+<p>"Eat your bacon and eggs. I trust and hope you'll both feel better
+when you've had your breakfast," said their mother. "I don't know
+what's gotten into you two lately. Always at each other and you used
+to be as close to each other as the two sides of a pair of shears."</p>
+
+<p>"Bet I always had the sharpest edge," mumbled Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"That's enough from you, young man."</p>
+
+<p>When his mother spoke in that tone of voice, Jerry thought it best to
+keep still and tend to what he was doing. He took a large mouthful of
+scrambled eggs. They were good scrambled eggs. His mother sure knew
+how to fix them.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Martin looked at Andy's vacant chair. "Oh, dear, that child's not
+down yet. He dawdles so getting dressed."</p>
+
+<p>"He's coming," said Jerry, as they heard a thump that was Andy jumping
+down the last two steps of the front stairs.</p>
+
+<p>In came Andy, an imaginary pistol in each hand. "Bang!" he cried,
+shooting his mother. "Bang! Bang! You're all dead. Aren't there any
+pancakes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come eat your cereal. I'm keeping your eggs and bacon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> hot for you
+out in the kitchen," said his mother. "Tuck your napkin under your
+chin. I don't want you to spill milk on your clean shirt. You should
+be thankful you have such a good breakfast. Plenty of children would
+be glad to have less."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not plenty of children. I'm me." Andy looked up and met Jerry's
+accusing gaze with a wide smile. Andy never remembered yesterday's
+mischief. Each day was brand-new to Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be harder than ever to get him to own up to what he did over
+at the Bullfinches'," thought Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>Andy knew the way to school and usually Jerry walked to school with
+boys his own age while Andy poked along alone or with one of his
+fellow kindergartners. But today when Andy had kissed his mother
+good-by and had come out the back door, Jerry was waiting for him.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got to hurry. I don't want to be late," said Andy, whose
+lateness had seldom worried him before.</p>
+
+<p>"We've got loads of time. Now, look here, Andy. I'm in a jam and
+you're the only one who can help me."</p>
+
+<p>Being talked to as his big brother's equal pleased Andy. "What you
+want me to do?"</p>
+
+<p>Jerry described vividly how unjustly Mr. Bullfinch had blamed him for
+getting into his house and breaking the Sousa record. "He's awfully
+down on me now," said Jerry. "Do you think it's fair for me to be
+blamed for something I didn't do?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Just tell him somebody else must have done it," suggested Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"I did but he didn't believe me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he's a bad, bad man."</p>
+
+<p>"It burns me up to be blamed for something I didn't do. You wouldn't
+like to be blamed for breaking a window if Tommy Jenks did it, would
+you, Andy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tommy and I can't throw a ball hard enough to break a window."</p>
+
+<p>"I give up," cried Jerry. "I might have known you wouldn't lift a
+finger to get me out of trouble. Save your own skin, that's all you
+care about. And I was meaning to give you something nice when I get
+it," said Jerry, thinking of the candy he would receive from
+Bartlett's store.</p>
+
+<p>"What were you going to give me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never you mind. Whatever it is, you won't get any."</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Jerry."</p>
+
+<p>"Nope."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mean to break that old record. It wasn't my fault. It
+slipped right out of my hand," remarked Andy.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry breathed a sigh of relief. Andy's resolution not to tell had
+begun to give. "I'll go right to the door with you if you'll fess up
+to Mr. Bullfinch what you did," he offered.</p>
+
+<p>Andy was not in the mood for an early morning call on Mr. Bullfinch.
+It took a lot of persuasion and the gift of two large rubber bands, an
+old campaign button, and two feet or so of good string before Andy let
+Jerry take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> him by the hand and lead him to the Bullfinch front door.</p>
+
+<p>"You ring the bell," said Jerry. He knew Andy liked to ring doorbells.</p>
+
+<p>Andy did not care to ring Mr. Bullfinch's bell just then. Jerry
+pressed it hard. He hoped Mr. Bullfinch would answer the bell in a
+hurry before Andy changed his mind about telling.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell him I'll help you pay for the record," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to pay money for an old broken record. It's no good,"
+said Andy, trying to pull away from Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>Just then Mr. Bullfinch opened the front door. He was wearing a dark
+blue bathrobe with a red plaid collar. He looked sleepy and not at all
+pleased to see his visitors.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you have to come so early?" he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"It's almost time for school. Andy has something he wants to tell
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't," said Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, Andy, you promised you'd tell."</p>
+
+<p>"I've changed my mind."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you'd say whatever you came to say and be off. I find small
+boys hard to take before I have a cup of coffee," said Mr. Bullfinch.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll give you the first nickel I find rolling uphill. Or downhill
+either," Jerry promised Andy. "Go on, tell him." Jerry gave Andy a
+gentle poke in the back.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 381px;">
+<img src="images/image090.png" width="381" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>Andy looked up at Mr. Bullfinch. "You shouldn't leave your cellar
+window unlocked. A real burglar might have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> gotten in instead of me.
+And that record must have been cracked. I dropped it very easy,
+honest," said Andy in a rush of words. "It wasn't Jerry, it was me,"
+he added.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bullfinch stopped looking displeased. "Well," he said, not
+sounding at all cross with Andy, "I must say I admire a young fellow
+who will step right up and confess he's been into a little mischief."</p>
+
+<p>"Little mischief!" thought Jerry. Last night at the door Mr. Bullfinch
+had sounded as if he had considered getting into his house a real
+crime. Still, Jerry was glad Mr. Bullfinch was not being hard on Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by," said Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"Just a minute," said Mr. Bullfinch. "When something is broken it has
+to be paid for. I think you owe me something for that record, even if
+you think it was cracked."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll help pay for it," offered Jerry, without great enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm saving my money to buy a space helmet," said Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's see," mused Mr. Bullfinch. "How are you boys at mowing lawns?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not bad," said Jerry, not remembering that his mother often remarked
+that it was like pulling teeth to get him to mow their lawn.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't mow but I can rake real good," said Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"Then if you'll come over after school this afternoon and take care of
+my lawn, we'll call it quits," said Mr. Bullfinch. "And I owe you an
+apology, Jerry, for misjudging<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> you. Sorry I had the wrong Martin boy
+by the ear. I hope you'll bring back that little something you've been
+keeping over here."</p>
+
+<p>"I may at that," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bullfinch looked at Andy sternly. "It's wrong to go into a house
+when nobody's home. Don't you let me hear of your doing that again."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't," promised Andy, giving Mr. Bullfinch one of his beaming
+smiles that showed his dimple.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, Andy, we can't stand here all day or we'll be late for
+school. I'll be seeing you," Jerry told Mr. Bullfinch, glad that they
+were friends again.</p>
+
+<p>Andy chattered happily on the way to school. Nothing got Andy down,
+Jerry thought, envying his carefree little brother. He should be
+feeling relieved about getting his guilt off his chest. But Andy had
+not seemed at all downhearted before. "Anyway, I got it out of him,"
+Jerry thought with satisfaction. Yet Jerry was grateful to Andy. He
+had known him to be far more stubborn.</p>
+
+<p>"Only nine more days before I get that candy from Bartlett's," Jerry
+thought. "And when I do, Andy not only gets the first piece; I don't
+care if he takes a whole handful."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry noticed that Andy almost had to run to keep up with him. He
+slowed down. Jerry felt like being very nice to Andy even if it meant
+that they would be late for school.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>8</h2>
+
+<h2>The Auction</h2>
+
+
+<p>"School going all right, Jerry?" asked his father.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was at the dining room table after dinner doing homework. He had
+a list of geography questions and was supposed to write down the
+answers. That meant either looking them up in the book or asking his
+father. Jerry's dad knew a good deal about geography, yet after
+answering a few questions he was likely to say, "How can you expect to
+learn if you don't find out for yourself?" He seemed to be in a good
+humor tonight. Jerry thought he might be good for answers to at least
+three questions of the ten.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm pretty sure I'm not failing anything at school," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"Glad to hear it. I thought you've looked lately as if something were
+worrying you. If your arithmetic is giving you trouble again, maybe I
+can give you a little help."</p>
+
+<p>"Arithmetic's not so hard after you get the hang of it. I got a
+hundred in an arithmetic test day before yesterday."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Good for you. Keep up the good work. I expect you to be good college
+material, you know, and that's not too many years ahead."</p>
+
+<p>The words "college material" weighed Jerry's spirits. It seemed such a
+long stretch of school before he would be ready for college. And all
+that time he would be expected to do good work, good the rest of this
+term in order to be good in junior high, even better in junior high to
+be good in high school, and then you had to be a regular whiz on
+wheels in senior high to be good college material. So much excellence
+expected of him made Jerry feel tired.</p>
+
+<p>"Guess I'll do the rest of this tomorrow morning before school," he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"Finish it now," ordered his father. "You know you never have time to
+do homework before school."</p>
+
+<p>"Could be a first time," said Jerry, but he bent over his paper again.
+"What are the chief products of Central America?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"That's rather a large question," said Mr. Martin. "Let's see."</p>
+
+<p>While his father was calling to mind the products of Central America,
+Jerry was thinking of the pleasant fact that there were only a few
+more days before he could settle the bill at Bartlett's store. And
+what a relief it would be to have that charge account off his mind!
+Jerry thought how surprised his father would be if he knew the cause
+of his improvement in arithmetic. Jerry had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> realized at first
+that all that adding and subtracting when he made change was helping
+his arithmetic, but now he could tell that he could add and subtract
+much faster. After bringing his mother the wrong change just once and
+having to pretend to go back to the store when he went only as far as
+Mr. Bullfinch's, Jerry had learned that it paid to be accurate.</p>
+
+<p>"Bananas, coffee, and some silver," said Mr. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>With difficulty Jerry's mind came back to geography. But he had
+forgotten which question he had asked his father. "Is that the answer
+to number four?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"If you can't keep your mind on your work I'm not going to help you.
+Look up your own answers. How can you expect to learn if you don't
+find out for yourself?" Mr. Martin took the evening paper into the
+living room.</p>
+
+<p>Cathy, who was sitting at the other end of the dining room table
+reading, looked up and laughed. "You didn't get much out of Daddy this
+time, did you?"</p>
+
+<p>Jerry saw that the jacket of the book Cathy was reading had a picture
+of a girl and a boy walking together, with the boy carrying a lot of
+books. Hers as well as his, Jerry guessed. Catch him carrying a girl's
+books. "I suppose you have your homework all done," he snarled at
+Cathy.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, bird-brain."</p>
+
+<p>"Bird-brain! If I have the brains of a bird you haven't any more than
+a&mdash;than a cockroach," said Jerry, which was the worst he could think
+of to say just then.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 380px;">
+<img src="images/image096.png" width="380" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Boys aren't supposed to be so rude to girls. You're the limit. The
+utter, utter limit."</p>
+
+<p>"Who says so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I say so."</p>
+
+<p>"You!" Jerry packed so much scorn into the word that Cathy looked at
+him in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"What's eating you lately?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry gathered his books and papers together. If Cathy began being
+nice to him for a change he might find himself confiding to her. It
+had made him uneasy to be alone with her ever since he had started
+that charge account business. He would be safer now up in his own
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't study here where you keep jawing at me," he complained.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I like that. I hardly opened my mouth and now you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Like it or lump it," cried Jerry from the doorway. "Today is
+Thursday," thought Jerry, as he ran upstairs. "Monday will be the
+first. That will be the day. All I have to do is hold out till the
+first of the week."</p>
+
+<p>On Friday, Mrs. Martin for once did not need anything at the store. Of
+course she had a big order for Saturday morning. So much that she
+thought of taking the car, with Jerry going along to help with the
+carrying, but Jerry said he could manage perfectly well with his cart.</p>
+
+<p>"No sense wasting gas when you have me to go to the store for you," he
+said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure you're feeling all right?" asked his mother. "I can't
+think what has gotten in to you to be so obliging. But it's nice to
+have a boy so willing to run errands," she said, giving Jerry the
+grocery list. "Sure you can manage?"</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was sure.</p>
+
+<p>When he stopped by at the Bullfinches' on his way back from the
+store&mdash;he had to get change from a twenty this time&mdash;Mr. Bullfinch was
+getting ready to go to an auction out in Rockville.</p>
+
+<p>"How'd you like to come with me?" he invited Jerry. Mr. Bullfinch had
+been especially cordial to him lately as if to make up for having
+suspected him of housebreaking. "If you've never been to an auction
+you might find it interesting."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry liked the idea. He said he would be right back as soon as he
+took the groceries home and asked his mother if he could go.</p>
+
+<p>"Fine. Hope you can go. I'll be glad of your company," said Mr.
+Bullfinch.</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later Jerry and Mr. Bullfinch were on their way to
+Rockville. Jerry had never ridden in Mr. Bullfinch's car before. It
+was not the car that was jerky, Jerry discovered, but Mr. Bullfinch.
+Still, he was a careful driver except when he got to talking. Then he
+seemed to forget his was not the only car on the road and the other
+cars honked at him. Yet Mr. Bullfinch was good at missing the other
+cars. At the very edge of collision he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> was a marvelous driver. Jerry
+held on to the door pull most of the time.</p>
+
+<p>It was not a long drive to Rockville. They made it by five after ten,
+Jerry noticed by a clock over a bank near where Mr. Bullfinch parked
+the car.</p>
+
+<p>"This is one of the smaller auction houses," explained Mr. Bullfinch,
+as he led the way into a place that looked to Jerry like a secondhand
+furniture store. "But sometimes the most interesting items are put up
+at small auctions."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry jingled the small change in his pocket. His entire wealth at the
+moment was forty-seven cents, hardly enough to buy either a usual or
+unusual item. He noticed that Mr. Bullfinch looked less calm and
+dignified than usual. There was a gleam of excitement in his eyes, an
+intensity in his voice. Jerry could tell that Mr. Bullfinch felt the
+same about auctions as Jerry did about going to baseball games out at
+Griffith Stadium.</p>
+
+<p>Folding chairs had been set up in the middle of the big room where the
+auction was being held. Furniture and stuff was jammed all around,
+even at the back of the platform where the auctioneer stood. He was a
+thick-set, big-mouthed man wearing a blue and red plaid sport shirt.</p>
+
+<p>"That's Jim Bean. He always puts on a good show," said Mr. Bullfinch.</p>
+
+<p>As Mr. Bullfinch and Jerry took seats in the back row, the auctioneer
+was holding up a table lamp.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Now here is something really beautiful," he was saying in a slightly
+hoarse yet persuasive voice. "This lamp has a base of real Chinese
+porcelain. Old Chinese porcelain and that's the most valuable, as all
+of you here know. Probably should be in a museum. Shade's a bit worn
+but it's easy enough to get one of those. Now I hope I'm going to hear
+a starting bid of ten for this exquisite piece of antique Chinese
+porcelain. Worth every cent of fifty or more but I'm willing to start
+it at ten."</p>
+
+<p>"One dollar," said Mr. Bullfinch.</p>
+
+<p>"That bid," said the auctioneer, "was too low for me to hear."</p>
+
+<p>"Two," snapped a lady in the front row.</p>
+
+<p>A man two seats to the left of Jerry held up a finger.</p>
+
+<p>"Three I'm bid. Who will make it five?" said Mr. Bean.</p>
+
+<p>"Three-fifty," said Mr. Bullfinch.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come," said Mr. Bean, "I can't accept bids of peanuts.
+Three-fifty I'm offered. We're just starting, folks. Do I hear five?"</p>
+
+<p>Jerry could not tell for sure but somebody in the front row must have
+indicated a bid of five, for now Mr. Bean was droning, "Five I have.
+Who will make it ten? Worth many times more. Five I have for this
+museum piece. Five I have."</p>
+
+<p>The lamp was going to be sold for five, Jerry thought, when Mr.
+Bullfinch sat up straight and snapped, "Six!" His eyes shone. He was
+really enjoying himself.</p>
+
+<p>It was like a game, Jerry thought, and wished he dared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> risk a bid.
+Better not, he decided, for there was always the chance that nobody
+would bid higher and he would be stuck with something he did not want
+and could not pay for. Better be on the safe side and let Mr.
+Bullfinch do the bidding. That was almost as much fun as doing it
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>The lamp was finally sold to the lady in the front row who had first
+bid against Mr. Bullfinch. Sold to her for nine dollars, which Mr.
+Bean said was giving it away.</p>
+
+<p>"Glad I didn't get it. We already have too many lamps," Mr. Bullfinch
+said in a low voice to Jerry, which proved that he had been bidding
+for the sport of it.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bullfinch did not open his mouth when the next few items were
+sold. After starting the ball rolling he was content to let others
+keep it rolling for a while. Besides, a bed, two French chairs, and a
+worn oriental rug were not unusual enough to interest him. Such items
+came up, he explained to Jerry, at nearly every auction held in
+Washington or its suburbs. But when Mr. Bean was handed a large cage
+with a large bird in it by one of his helpers, Mr. Bullfinch sat up
+straight on the edge of his chair again.</p>
+
+<p>"Never knew a parrot to be auctioned off before," he told Jerry.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 403px;">
+<img src="images/image102.png" width="403" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>"Diplomat leaving the country says, 'Sell everything,' and that
+included this handsome bird. Speaks Spanish, they tell me. Wish Polly
+would oblige us by saying something in Spanish, but he&mdash;I understand
+it's a male&mdash;is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> too shy to speak before strangers. He's been well
+taken care of. Wonderful gloss to his feathers," praised Mr. Bean.
+"Beautiful color. Give an accent to any d&eacute;cor, modern or traditional,
+besides being a wonderful pet. Now who is going to be the lucky owner
+of this gorgeous bird?"</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was surprised that Mr. Bullfinch did not begin the bidding,
+which started at a disgusting low of fifty cents. Mr. Bullfinch did
+not speak until the bidding rose to three dollars. Then, "Five
+dollars," he said in a firm voice that dared anybody to bid higher.
+Since nobody did, the parrot was Mr. Bullfinch's for five dollars.</p>
+
+<p>"Guess I could have had it for four," Mr. Bullfinch said to Jerry.
+"Thought it would go to seven."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was very glad that Mr. Bullfinch's had been the winning bid. It
+would be interesting to have a Spanish-speaking parrot next door,
+though Jerry would have bid for the parrot himself if he had had the
+money. The only pet the Martin family had was Bibsy. "Wish we had a
+parrot," thought Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry rather lost interest in the auction after the high spot of
+selling the parrot. Mr. Bullfinch put in a bid once in a while but let
+his bid be topped.</p>
+
+<p>Since Mr. Bullfinch already had a parrot cage, he could keep one cage
+in the house and the other out in the yard, Jerry was thinking, as a
+mahogany sewing table was lifted to the auctioneer's platform. Neither
+Jerry nor Mr. Bullfinch was interested in mahogany sewing tables.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+Jerry's eyes wandered. He hardly heard Mr. Bean praise the sewing
+table and accept the first bid. Jerry turned his head and looked
+around and there was Bill Ellis, a classmate of Jerry's in the sixth.
+The man beside him was his father. Jerry had seen him enough times to
+recognize him.</p>
+
+<p>Bill saw Jerry and grinned and Jerry put up a hand in greeting.</p>
+
+<p>"Sold for three dollars to the young man in the red jacket in the back
+row," said the auctioneer.</p>
+
+<p>Horrified, Jerry realized that his raised arm had been interpreted as
+a bid and that he had just bought a mahogany sewing table. "I don't
+want it. It was a mistake," he wanted to say, but before he could get
+the words out, Mr. Bean was extolling the beauties of a large oil
+painting. Jerry had missed his chance to speak up.</p>
+
+<p>"Be a nice present for your mother," said Mr. Bullfinch.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was sunk in despair. He thought that if you bought something at
+an auction you had to keep it. What was he going to do when he and Mr.
+Bullfinch went up to the desk near the door where you paid and what
+you had bought was brought out to you?</p>
+
+<p>"Forty-seven cents isn't any three dollars," thought Jerry dismally.
+Nor did he have any more at home.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Jerry thought of a place where there was plenty of ready
+money. In Mr. Bullfinch's grandfather clock. Suppose he told the man
+at the desk that he did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> not have enough money on him but would be
+right back with some. Then he could borrow enough to pay for the
+sewing table&mdash;minus forty-seven cents. Of course it was Mr. Bartlett's
+money, not his, but as soon as he got back from paying for the sewing
+table Jerry could go around the neighborhood and get a lawn or two to
+mow and get money to pay back to Mr. Bartlett. But suppose nobody
+wanted a lawn mowed? And how would he get back and forth between
+Rockville and Washington? On a bus, maybe.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I've had about enough of this," said Mr. Bullfinch, and he
+led the way to the desk where the paying for and delivery of goods
+took place.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry did a lot of thinking as he followed Mr. Bullfinch. He
+remembered reading a story about a man who worked in a bank and took
+money, expecting to pay it back, only he couldn't. If Jerry borrowed
+some of Mr. Bartlett's money, that wouldn't be much different from
+what the man in the bank did. And he had gone to jail.</p>
+
+<p>"Anyway, it wouldn't be honest," thought Jerry, and knew he couldn't
+get money to pay for the sewing table that way. What the man at the
+desk would say to him when he had to confess he couldn't pay, Jerry
+dreaded to find out.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bullfinch paid for his parrot. Jerry moved up toward the desk. He
+was pale behind his freckles. He could see a man bringing over the
+mahogany sewing table. Just then, somebody touched Jerry's arm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'll give you a dollar more than you paid for that sewing table,"
+said a woman in a red hat.</p>
+
+<p>Color rushed back into Jerry's face. He beamed at the woman. "Pay the
+man three dollars and you can have it," he said.</p>
+
+<p>On their way out to the car&mdash;and Mr. Bullfinch very kindly let Jerry
+carry the cage with the parrot in it&mdash;Mr. Bullfinch explained that it
+would have been quite all right for Jerry to have made a dollar on the
+sewing table. "If somebody offers you more than you have paid it's all
+right to take it. But what made you decide you didn't want the little
+sewing table?"</p>
+
+<p>"My mother has a sewing table," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"Good thing then you got rid of it," said Mr. Bullfinch. "Sometimes
+I'm not so lucky at getting rid of something I've bought and don't
+need. I get a bit carried away when I get to bidding."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bullfinch looked calm and dignified again, but Jerry remembered
+how thrilled he had looked at the auction.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you enjoy going to an auction?" asked Mr. Bullfinch.</p>
+
+<p>"I enjoyed most of it," said Jerry. But nobody would ever know, he
+thought, slightly swinging the heavy cage, how relieved he had been to
+get rid of that mahogany sewing table. He rather wished now, though,
+that he had accepted that extra dollar.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>9</h2>
+
+<h2>As Good as a Watchdog</h2>
+
+
+<p>It was time for lunch when Jerry got back from the auction. He was
+eating his second big waffle and his fourth sausage&mdash;the Martins
+always had an especially good lunch on Saturdays since it was the one
+weekday they were all home to lunch&mdash;when there was a knock at the
+back door.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Martin went to the door, and the family heard him say cordially,
+"Come right in."</p>
+
+<p>Into the dining room came Mr. Bullfinch, parrot cage in hand. The
+parrot was head-down, holding onto the perch with his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"He speaks Spanish," Jerry said, although he had already informed his
+family of that fact. "Make him say something in Spanish, Mr.
+Bullfinch."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bullfinch refused to sit down but he did put the parrot cage on a
+chair. "Say '<i>Buenos d&iacute;as</i>,'" he urged the parrot. "That is 'Good day'
+or 'How do you do' in Spanish," he explained. But the parrot said
+nothing in any language.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 377px;">
+<img src="images/image108.png" width="377" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>By this time Jerry and Andy were kneeling on the floor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> by the cage.
+"Pretty Polly. Polly want a cracker?" crooned Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"He's not a she, he's a he," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't put your finger near the cage. He might bite," Mrs. Martin
+warned Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"He wouldn't bite <i>me</i>. Parrots like me," said Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you ever get acquainted with a parrot?" asked Cathy, who
+had come over to admire the big green bird.</p>
+
+<p>"Somewheres."</p>
+
+<p>"You just dreamed you did." Cathy gave her small brother a hug,
+against which he pretended to struggle. He bumped into the cage and
+the parrot gave a loud squawk.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out," cried Mrs. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>"I've come to ask a big favor," said Mr. Bullfinch in his polite
+voice. "I didn't realize until I got home that my wife is violently
+allergic to parrots. She had a severe sneezing fit when it had not
+been in the house more than five minutes. So, I'll have to dispose of
+the bird. Fine specimen it is, too. Well, it's too late now to get a
+'for sale' notice in the paper before Monday, and if I keep the bird
+in the house until then my wife might have an asthma attack. Would it
+be too much of an imposition for me to ask you to keep the parrot over
+here until Monday?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," said Mr. Martin heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not sure we could trust Bibsy to let the parrot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> alone. You know
+how it is with birds and cats, Mr. Bullfinch," said Mrs. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, do you think any cat could get the best of a bird with a beak on
+him like that?" cried Jerry. "Anyway, Bibsy is good about leaving
+birds alone. You know she is. Besides, having a parrot who can speak
+Spanish in the house will teach us a little Spanish. I heard you say
+that the reason people in the United States are so poor at speaking
+foreign languages is because they don't start young enough to learn
+one. Here's our chance."</p>
+
+<p>"The amount of Spanish you'd learn from a parrot over a week end won't
+be likely to make you very proficient in the language," said Mrs.
+Martin. Then she turned to Mr. Bullfinch and told him she would be
+glad to keep the parrot until Monday. "But only till Monday," she
+said, looking at Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>After Mr. Bullfinch had expressed his thanks and left, all three of
+the Martin children begged their mother to buy the parrot from Mr.
+Bullfinch. Jerry rashly promised all his allowance for May. Cathy
+wouldn't go as far as that but she would spare a dollar. And Andy
+trotted off for his piggy bank to contribute his pennies.</p>
+
+<p>"I better run after Mr. Bullfinch and tell him he needn't phone in
+that ad for the newspaper," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll do no such thing," said his mother. "I agreed to keep the
+parrot over the week end. I meant over the week end and no longer."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When their mother spoke in that tone of voice, her children had
+learned it was no use to argue.</p>
+
+<p>"I've always wanted a parrot for a pet and here is a good chance to
+get one and you turn it down," grumbled Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the parrot's name?" asked Mr. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry didn't know. "Can you ask him what his name is in Spanish?" he
+asked his father.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Martin didn't think that would do much good but he could and did
+ask the parrot in Spanish what his name was.</p>
+
+<p>There was no response from the parrot.</p>
+
+<p>"Guess you'll have to give him a name," said Mr. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's call him Pete," suggested Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"Pete's not a Spanish name. He ought to have a Spanish name," said
+Cathy.</p>
+
+<p>"I think Pedro's the Spanish for Pete," said Jerry, remembering a
+story he had read about a Spanish donkey.</p>
+
+<p>They agreed on Pedro. They all addressed the parrot by name but he
+only glared at them with his beady eyes and kept silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe he's dumb," said Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe he's too young to know how to talk," said Cathy.</p>
+
+<p>"He's not that young," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>They were eating dessert&mdash;pineapple upside-down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> cake&mdash;when the parrot
+beat his wings and said in a strong, hoarse voice, "<i>Caramba!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"What does that mean?" Jerry asked his father.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a Spanish word that they use the same way we say 'Gosh!'"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i>" repeated Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i>" Andy tried to say, only it came out more like
+"<i>Carimba!</i>" The way he said it made it sound like a swear word.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, I hope that bird won't teach the children any bad
+language," said Mrs. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>"I somehow doubt if he'll teach them to swear in Spanish over the week
+end," said Mr. Martin, with a twinkle in his eye.</p>
+
+<p>Then there began an argument about where the parrot's cage should be
+hung. Cathy said it should be in her room because the parrot's color
+would go so well with her bedspread and curtains. Jerry said that
+naturally the cage should be in his room. He had known the parrot
+longest, hadn't he?</p>
+
+<p>"He likes me best. I know he does," declared Andy. "I want him to
+sleep with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe the recreation room would be more appropriate," suggested Mr.
+Martin.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Martin knew where there was a big hook which could be screwed in
+over one of the windows. "You can spend as much time down there with
+him as you want to," she told the children.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If we turn the TV on good and loud, that might teach him a little
+English," said Jerry. "We teach him English. He teaches us Spanish."</p>
+
+<p>"Fair enough," said Mr. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the afternoon Jerry was taking his time about mowing the
+lawn, and wishing there was stuff to put on grass to make it stop
+growing instead of all that fertilizer his father put on to make it
+grow, when his mother called and asked him to run to the store for a
+package of raisins. She wanted to make raisin sauce for the ham they
+were having for dinner that night.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry never minded having to stop mowing the lawn. Now if his father
+had a power mower that would be different. But Jerry's father refused
+to buy a power mower until he decided that Jerry was old enough to run
+it. In Jerry's opinion, he was old enough now. He threw down the
+despised hand lawn mower and started for the store, walking, not
+taking his bike this time. His mother was in no immediate hurry for
+the raisins and Jerry was certainly in no hurry to finish mowing the
+lawn.</p>
+
+<p>This probably would be his last trip to the store before the happy
+time of going to pay the bill on Monday, Jerry thought, making a
+slight detour in order to jump two low hedges in a neighbor's yard.
+Over without touching, he was pleased to note. May Day would mean the
+end of all that rigmarole of the secret charge account. And what a
+relief that would be! In his thoughts Jerry had shied away from
+applying the word deceit to his charging groceries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> and keeping Mr.
+Bartlett's money over at the Bullfinches', but he had not been able to
+get away from an uneasy feeling about what he had been doing. It was
+his nature to be open and aboveboard. The past month had been a
+strain.</p>
+
+<p>"Now it's all over but the payoff," thought Jerry, waiting for Mr.
+Bartlett to make out the grocery slip. The candy in the showcase next
+to the cash register looked luscious. Jerry wondered how many pieces
+there were in a half pound and thought of asking but decided against
+it. Jerry was still hopeful that Mr. Bartlett would at least make it a
+heavy half pound when the bill was paid.</p>
+
+<p>This time Jerry had to get only change for half a dollar from the
+grandfather clock. He stopped to visit a few minutes with Mr.
+Bullfinch, who had a fireplace fire burning in his den.</p>
+
+<p>"Had a man here last week to give the furnace its summer hookup," said
+Mr. Bullfinch. "Should have had more sense. I forgot that it's
+possible to half roast and half freeze on the same day. This morning
+felt like June and this afternoon's more like March. That's Washington
+spring weather for you."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry agreed that the weather had turned chilly. He watched the flames
+lick the charcoal briquets in the fireplace.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bullfinch had a grate shaped like a cradle in his fireplace and
+burned charcoal or coal instead of logs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> It would be a wonderful fire
+for a cook-out, Jerry thought. Only he guessed that if you cooked a
+meal over an open fire indoors, it should be called a cook-in.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bullfinch inquired after the parrot's health, and Jerry said that
+as far as he could tell, it was good. Jerry said he had wheeled the
+television set over so the parrot could watch the ball game.</p>
+
+<p>"I would have been looking at it, too, if I hadn't had to mow the lawn
+and then go to the store."</p>
+
+<p>"I can see that you are a busy lad," sympathized Mr. Bullfinch.</p>
+
+<p>"I probably won't be over here so often after Monday," said Jerry,
+after replacing the tobacco pouch in the grandfather clock.</p>
+
+<p>"That so? We shall miss having you run in every day or so. Hope you
+won't be too much of a stranger."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bullfinch did not ask why Jerry's visits would be less frequent
+after Monday. That was one of the nice things about Mr. Bullfinch, his
+showing no curiosity about Jerry's affairs. Jerry was so grateful to
+him for not asking embarrassing questions that he found it hard not to
+break down and tell him all about the charge account. But that was a
+temptation Jerry had already successfully resisted several times and
+he now did again.</p>
+
+<p>"After I get the candy Monday I'll give him some and tell him all
+about it," Jerry vowed.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was pleased to find his father finishing mowing the lawn.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"At the rate you were going I thought you might not get it done before
+dark," his father greeted him.</p>
+
+<p>That was the way parents were. Instead of being grateful for what you
+had done, they bawled you out for not finishing the last bit. "I would
+have done it," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry raked up the grass clippings before he took the box of raisins
+in to his mother. "Where's Cathy?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I think she's down looking at TV."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry ran down to the recreation room. The TV had been turned off.
+Cathy was standing close to Pedro's cage.</p>
+
+<p>"Cathy. Cathy. Cathy," she repeated. "Say Cathy."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was indignant. While he had been hard at work on the lawn and
+then running to the store, Cathy had been trying to teach the parrot
+to say her name.</p>
+
+<p>"You quit that," ordered Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to know why."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry did not come right out and say that he wanted Pedro to say <i>his</i>
+name first.</p>
+
+<p>"Seems pretty conceited for you to think your name is the most
+important word in the English language," he said. "Pretty conceited.
+Naturally Pedro should learn the most important words first."</p>
+
+<p>"What <i>is</i> the most important word in the English language?" asked
+Cathy.</p>
+
+<p>"That depends."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Depends on what?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you could answer as many questions as you can ask, you'd be more
+than half bright."</p>
+
+<p>"Jerry Martin, are you calling me a moron? You know I get better
+grades in school than you do."</p>
+
+<p>"Who called you a moron?"</p>
+
+<p>"You did."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not. I didn't say how much more than half bright you'd be if
+you could answer as many questions as you ask."</p>
+
+<p>"You're&mdash;you're impossible."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry turned the television on. As a singing commercial came on, the
+parrot laughed a raucous laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, he may not know how to speak English but that parrot's got
+sense," said Jerry admiringly.</p>
+
+<p>A door above opened. "Jerry," called his mother from upstairs, "you
+come right up here and get that snake off the hall table."</p>
+
+<p>"It's only a little green snake I found when I was cutting the grass,"
+grumbled Jerry. "I was going to catch flies for it. It's a perfectly
+harmless snake."</p>
+
+<p>"Snakes&mdash;ugh!" said Cathy.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, what's got into you? I've seen you let a little green garter
+snake wind around your wrist like a bracelet."</p>
+
+<p>"I did, didn't I?" Cathy was suddenly on Jerry's level again. Then she
+looked up at her reflection in a mirror over the television set and
+smoothed her hair at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> sides. "I used to do a lot of silly things
+when I was young," she said.</p>
+
+<p>She seemed to be insinuating that she was more grownup than Jerry,
+even though they were twins. Jerry was furious with her. He was angry
+because they were no longer the companions they used to be, though he
+did not realize it. He missed the old Cathy, who reappeared only now
+and then. They were so seldom really together nowadays and it had not
+been long ago that they had been two against anything or anybody which
+threatened one of them.</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't be a girl for a million dollars," he said. "Little pats of
+powder, Little daubs of paint, Make a little girly Look like what she
+ain't," he quoted.</p>
+
+<p>"Why Jerry Martin, I wouldn't think of using rouge. Mummy wouldn't let
+me if I wanted to."</p>
+
+<p>"Cathy," called her mother from upstairs. "Come set the table for
+dinner."</p>
+
+<p>Cathy, with one of her movie-queen looks, sailed past Jerry and went
+upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Girls are nuts," Jerry said.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha!" laughed Pedro.</p>
+
+<p>"You <i>are</i> a smart bird," said Jerry and tried in vain to teach the
+parrot to say "Jerry." Pedro said "<i>Caramba</i>" again and a few Spanish
+words Jerry did not understand, but that was all.</p>
+
+<p>He certainly was a handsome bird. Jerry looked at him with affection.
+"Give you time and you'll learn to speak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> English," said Jerry. And,
+"Gosh, I wish you really belonged to me." Then, having been called
+twice, Jerry went up to dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry went to the neighborhood movie that night with his mother and
+Cathy, so he was later getting to bed than usual. He was dropping off
+to sleep when he heard what he thought was a car backfiring outside.
+Then, at the very edge of sleep again, Jerry smelled smoke. He rushed
+to the window. By moonlight he could see the Bullfinch house almost as
+plain as day. There was smoke coming out of the chimney. There was
+also smoke rising from the roof.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire!" bawled Jerry. "Fire!" he shouted all the way down the stairs.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 385px;">
+<img src="images/image120.png" width="385" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>"The Bullfinch house is on fire!" he yelled at the door of the living
+room where his father and mother were sitting.</p>
+
+<p>"What?" cried his father.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this one of your ideas of a joke?" asked his mother.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry did not stop. The front door slammed behind him. "Fire!" he kept
+shouting all the way to the Bullfinch house, as if a phonograph needle
+had been stuck at that word in a record.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got to get that grocery money out of there. I've got to," Jerry
+thought, so excited and driven that he did not know he was shivering
+with cold.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry rang the Bullfinch doorbell hard with one hand while he pounded
+on the door with the other.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bullfinch came to the door. He looked only a little excited.</p>
+
+<p>"Your house is on fire!" cried Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"I know. I know. I've called the fire department," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+"Won't you come in?" he asked politely, as if it were not strange to
+invite a person to come in a burning house.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was glad to get Mr. Bartlett's money safe in two pockets of his
+pajamas. There was too much of it for one.</p>
+
+<p>"Want me to help carry out things?" he asked Mr. Bullfinch.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bullfinch was fluttering about, wondering what should be saved
+first, when sirens screeched and fire engines arrived on the scene.</p>
+
+<p>By this time a small crowd had gathered to watch the fire. Jerry's
+mother brought out a jacket for him to put on over his pajamas. He was
+glad of its warmth and also because he could transfer Mr. Bartlett's
+money into larger pockets where bulges would not be so conspicuous.</p>
+
+<p>It was not much of a fire. It was soon out. All that had burned was
+part of the eaves near the chimney. Jerry heard his father ask Mr.
+Bullfinch if he knew how the fire had started. And Mr. Bullfinch
+seemed slightly embarrassed as he explained what he thought must have
+happened.</p>
+
+<p>"I have only my own carelessness to blame," said Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> Bullfinch. "You
+see, I burn charcoal in the fireplace in my den. I keep a big sack of
+charcoal briquets out in the garage. Well, soon after I put fresh
+charcoal on the fire&mdash;I often read late you know&mdash;there was a sharp
+series of bangs and I realized what had happened."</p>
+
+<p>Then all that banging hadn't been a car backfiring, thought Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a shelf in the garage over the sack of charcoal," Mr.
+Bullfinch continued, "and there was a box of cartridges on the shelf.
+It must be that a few cartridges spilled into the charcoal and they
+went off when I put them on the fire. Lucky they fired up the chimney
+instead of in the room. Loosened a few bricks in the chimney and
+burned a bit of the eaves. No great damage, I'm thankful to say."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the most unusual cause of a fire I ever heard of," said Mr.
+Martin.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want the fire to be out so soon," mourned Andy, who had been
+waked up to come to the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd better get that child to bed," said Mr. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry would have followed his father but Mr. Bullfinch wanted to thank
+him for coming over to rescue them, even though they had not needed to
+be rescued. "But if I hadn't still been up you might have saved our
+lives," he told Jerry. Then he told Jerry something else that filled
+Jerry's heart with joy. Jerry was so grateful he could hardly speak.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Jerry kept his cause of gratitude to himself until the family were in
+the kitchen having a bite to eat.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Bullfinch has given Pedro to me," he said, putting a thick layer
+of grape marmalade and peanut butter on a slice of bread. "A
+five-dollar parrot and he's worth much more than that and Mr.
+Bullfinch gave him to me for almost saving his life."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" said Mrs. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire!" bawled a loud hoarse voice from the cellar.</p>
+
+<p>"It's Pedro. He's said his first English word." Jerry was beaming with
+pride. "He'll be as good as a watchdog. Don't miners sometimes take
+parrots into mines with them to warn them against poisonous fumes?"</p>
+
+<p>"A canary I've heard of&mdash;not a parrot," said Mr. Martin. "And we're
+really in very little danger from poisonous fumes. But I guess we
+can't risk offending a neighbor by refusing a gift."</p>
+
+<p>"Taking care of a parrot can be a lot of work," said Mrs. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll help," offered Cathy. And Jerry was grateful to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire!" the parrot kept bawling. "Fire!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go down and put something over his cage or we'll not get any sleep,"
+Jerry's mother told him. "Yes, you can keep him. I might have known
+when I saw that parrot come into the house that he would stay."</p>
+
+<p>As Jerry galloped down the stairs to the recreation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> room with a scarf
+to put over Pedro's cage, he wondered if he would have hurried quite
+as fast over to the Bullfinch house if it had not been for the money
+in the grandfather clock. He had slipped in and put it back there
+before coming home. Fire was not likely to strike twice in the same
+house, he had thought.</p>
+
+<p>Pedro was making gentle, clucking noises.</p>
+
+<p>"Good night, old bird," said Jerry, after he had put the scarf over
+the cage. "I wonder if parrots eat candy," he thought on his way
+upstairs to bed. "When I get that candy from Mr. Bartlett tomorrow I'm
+going to try Pedro on a piece of a lime mint. They're almost the same
+color as the feathers near his throat."</p>
+
+<p>Joy of ownership of a handsome green parrot made Jerry's steps light
+on the stairs. He went to bed by moonlight. There seemed to be a glow
+on everything.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>10</h2>
+
+<h2>May Day</h2>
+
+
+<p>"How nice that today is pleasant, so you can have your May Day
+exercises outdoors," Mrs. Martin said, as she bustled about getting
+her children's breakfast on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you finish hemming my dress?" asked Cathy. She was to be crowned
+May Queen and was so worried about looking exactly right that she
+could hardly eat her breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>"It's all packed in a suit box," said Mrs. Martin. "I put in Andy's
+costume under it. Be surer of getting there if you carry it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do I have to wear that silly sash?" Andy was to help wind the Maypole
+and was to wear yellow cambric shorts, a white blouse, and a yellow
+sash around his middle.</p>
+
+<p>"You must dress as your teacher told you to," said his mother. "Be
+careful with that glass of milk, Andy."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was thankful that his only part in the May Day festival was to
+help seat the parents. And that all he had to wear different from
+usual was an armband. Jerry's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> mind was not on the May Day exercises.
+He had something far more important to think about. Today was the day
+he had so long looked forward to. Today he would pay the bill at
+Bartlett's store. The store wouldn't be open early enough so he could
+tend to it before school, but the minute he could get away from the
+May Day exercises that afternoon he would race to Mr. Bullfinch's, get
+the money from the grandfather clock, and go pay the bill. Thinking of
+the candy that would then be presented to him made Jerry grin.</p>
+
+<p>"You're looking mighty pleased with yourself this morning, Jerry,"
+said his mother, passing him the bacon.</p>
+
+<p>"Who? Me? It's Cathy who's the big shot today. Hi, Queenie! You
+feeling squeamy?" he teased his sister. "Won't you look like
+something&mdash;all dressed up like a circus horse, with a tinfoil crown on
+your head? Yes, your majesty. No, your majesty. After this you'll
+expect everybody to bow down to you. Not me. I'm not forgetting this
+is a democracy."</p>
+
+<p>"All I hope is that you won't do anything at the exercises that will
+disgrace the family," said Cathy.</p>
+
+<p>"Call me a disgrace to the family, do you? Well, I like that."</p>
+
+<p>"There isn't time for you two to squabble. You should be leaving for
+school in less than five minutes," said Mrs. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>"I won't say a word if Cathy'll leave me alone," said Jerry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I leave you alone! Why it was you who started&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care who started what. It's finished," said Mrs. Martin with
+firmness.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry gave Cathy a mocking smile. He was really proud that she had
+been chosen May Queen. He would never let on to her all the votes he
+had rounded up for her. Not Jerry. He kept it a dark secret that he
+thought her the prettiest girl in their class. No need of making her
+more stuck on her looks than she already was.</p>
+
+<p>Lessons at school were brief that day. By ten-thirty, four boys from
+the sixth grade were helping the custodian put up the Maypole. Then
+there were two chairs from the principal's office to be draped with
+gold-colored cambric, throne chairs for the King and Queen. As soon as
+lunch period was over, Jerry helped carry chairs from the cafeteria
+out to the yard, where they were arranged in rows facing the throne.
+The exercises were to begin at one, but a few parents came before all
+the chairs were in place.</p>
+
+<p>A phonograph on a table behind a tree furnished music for winding the
+Maypole. Jerry, standing with his classmates behind the chairs&mdash;there
+were chairs only for the parents&mdash;saw that Andy looked very earnest
+and a little scared. He got to going the wrong way once but was
+quickly turned around by his kindergarten teacher. Jerry was glad for
+Andy's sake when the Maypole dance was over.</p>
+
+<p>Now came the crowning of the King and Queen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> Cathy wore a white
+billowy dress and her mother's pearl necklace. She was flushed and her
+eyes shone.</p>
+
+<p>"What a little charmer she will be in a few years," Jerry heard one of
+the mothers say.</p>
+
+<p>"Yeah! A snake charmer," Jerry thought. He knew though that that was
+not the kind of charmer meant. Jerry did not want Cathy to charm
+anybody, especially boys. It made him mad if he saw her look moony at
+a boy. "Mush" was what Jerry called a certain way some of the girls
+and boys looked at each other. It was definitely not for him.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry managed to slip away before the exercises were quite over. A
+spring song by the combined fourth and fifth grades rang in his ears
+as he left the schoolyard. Everybody would be free to go home at the
+end of the song, but Jerry wanted to get a head start. He wanted to
+surprise the family with the box of candy the minute they got home.</p>
+
+<p>He ran all the way to the Bullfinches'. "In an awful hurry. See you
+later," he said, rushing in and grabbing the tobacco pouch of money
+from the grandfather clock. Then he was off for the store, running as
+if chased.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 380px;">
+<img src="images/image129.png" width="380" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bartlett, for once, was alone in the store.</p>
+
+<p>"I came to pay the bill," gasped Jerry, and he emptied the contents of
+the tobacco pouch on the counter.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring the bill with you?" asked Mr. Bartlett.</p>
+
+<p>What bill? Jerry did not know anything about a bill. But he had saved
+all the grocery slips. He had gone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> over to the Bullfinches' the
+night before and added and added. He was sure the money was the right
+amount.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bartlett looked up the amount due in a ledger. He was a bit grumpy
+about having to count so much chicken feed, as he called it, as he
+counted the change. "It's all here," he said finally.</p>
+
+<p>For an awful moment Jerry was afraid he was not going to get a bonus
+for paying the bill. It was with enormous relief that he saw Mr.
+Bartlett reach for a half-pound pasteboard box.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a fair-sized bill and I'll give you a full half pound," said
+Mr. Bartlett. "Anything you prefer?"</p>
+
+<p>Jerry said he would like a few pink and green mints. With pleasure he
+watched Mr. Bartlett arrange a row of varicolored mints and fill up
+the rest of the box with chocolates&mdash;so full that the cover would
+hardly go down.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry thanked Mr. Bartlett with great heartiness. Fond though he was
+of candy, Jerry didn't take even as much as a taste on the way home.
+He would show it to his mother and Cathy and Andy but he would save it
+untouched until his father got home from work.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to prove to you that having a charge account pays off," he
+would tell his father, offering him the open box, after Andy had had
+the first piece&mdash;Jerry remembered that Andy was to have the first
+piece. "Where else can you get something for nothing except<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> by
+charging your groceries at Bartlett's store?" That was what Jerry
+would say to his father. Or something else that might occur to him
+later. His father would be sure to see the advantage of charging
+groceries as soon as he cast an eye on all that free candy.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry whistled gaily most of the way back from the store. "Bet you
+can't guess what I have," he cried, as he opened the kitchen door and
+saw his mother and Cathy sitting at the kitchen table. Further
+cheerful words died in his throat when he saw that both his mother and
+Cathy had been crying.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" Could something terrible have happened to his
+father? Or to Andy? What awful thing could make his mother and Cathy
+look so sad? There were envelopes and letters on the table. His mother
+had been opening her mail. The bad news must have come in a letter,
+then.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Grandma Martin sick again?" Jerry asked.</p>
+
+<p>His mother sobbed, and Jerry couldn't remember ever seeing his mother
+cry. "How could you, Jerry? How could you do such a dreadful thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"He didn't do it. I know he didn't to it!" cried Cathy. "Tell her you
+didn't do it, Jerry. Tell her it must be a mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"To think that a son of mine would be a thief!" said Jerry's mother.
+And the face she turned toward him was full of hurt and
+disappointment. It tore Jerry inside.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I haven't done anything. Anything wrong," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"You stand there and tell me that you haven't been charging groceries
+at Bartlett's store for a month?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure I did but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jerry!" Cathy burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you do with the money?" demanded Jerry's mother. "Mischief
+can be forgiven but stealing is a crime. When I opened an envelope and
+found a bill for the month of April from Bartlett's store, I hoped
+against hope that there must be a mistake. But now you confess you've
+been deceiving me and charging the groceries that I gave you money to
+pay for. I never thought I would be so ashamed of you, Jerry Martin."
+The look she gave him was worse than a blow.</p>
+
+<p>So she thought him a thief&mdash;was ashamed of him&mdash;believed the worst of
+him before giving him a chance to explain. Jerry felt such a deep hurt
+he felt like crying but he wasn't going to let anybody see him cry.
+And if that was what his mother thought of him, he wasn't going to
+stay around here. Not after she had looked at him as if she wished he
+did not belong in her family.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry slammed the box of candy so hard on the table that the cover
+opened and some of the candy fell out.</p>
+
+<p>"I paid the bill with the money. Ask Mr. Bartlett if you don't believe
+me. I was going to surprise you by showing you the bonus he gives for
+charging a month's groceries. I didn't spend a cent of your old money.
+I&mdash;" Jerry suddenly could not endure being there a second<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> longer. He
+rushed out, slamming the door behind him.</p>
+
+<p>Rage sent Jerry hurrying down his street and out to Massachusetts
+Avenue. He was so hurt and angry he could hardly see straight. He
+would run away from home. He would leave Washington. He would go
+somewhere a long way off. He would go where nobody would be likely to
+accuse him unjustly of being a thief. He walked rapidly, almost
+running in his hurry to leave home.</p>
+
+<p>Where should he go? Jerry did not have even the bus fare to go to
+town, let alone get out of the city. But he had two feet, didn't he?
+Maybe after he decided where he was going he would hitchhike. Jerry
+knew his mother disapproved of hitchhiking but why should he pay any
+attention to that now, after she had believed him to be a thief? Jerry
+made no effort, however, to hitch a ride. He walked and walked.</p>
+
+<p>There were azaleas in bloom in some of the yards he passed. Bushes of
+faded lilacs. Bright beds of tulips and pansies. Jerry did not notice
+them. He was in no mood to enjoy flowers. He was about a mile from
+home when he remembered hearing a guest say to his mother, "Florida is
+really delightful in the spring. And after the winter visitors have
+left the prices go down."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 419px;">
+<img src="images/image134.png" width="419" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>Jerry thought it might be a good idea to go where the prices had gone
+down. Be easier for him to earn enough to live on. A lot of people
+went fishing off the coast of Florida. Maybe he could help out on some
+fishing boat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> Jerry liked to fish and he liked boats. That idea
+appealed to him. But he realized that it was a long, long way to
+Florida from Washington, D. C. It was even a long way&mdash;five miles at
+least&mdash;from Jerry's house to Memorial Bridge, over which he would
+cross the Potomac into the state of Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>As Jerry went along the part of Massachusetts Avenue which has many
+foreign embassies, it occurred to him that he might be seeing
+Washington for the last time. So he looked hard at the white
+Venezuelan Embassy and at the red brick British Embassy. Those were
+his two favorites, and he wanted to remember how they looked.</p>
+
+<p>There were several circles to go around and a bridge to cross over
+Rock Creek Park before Jerry was anywhere near Memorial Bridge. He
+missed his direction a little when he left Massachusetts Avenue, but
+he was finally in sight of the Lincoln Memorial and the bridge was
+near.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry yielded to an impulse to take a last look at the Lincoln
+Memorial. He climbed the steps and stood and gazed up at the seated
+figure of Abraham Lincoln, with so much sadness and kindness in his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>Having paid his respects to Abraham Lincoln, it didn't seem quite
+right to be leaving town without doing the same by George Washington.
+Weary though his legs were, Jerry trudged over to the Washington
+Monument.</p>
+
+<p>There were not many people waiting in line to go up in the Monument.
+Jerry was the only one who walked up instead of riding to the top in
+the elevator. Jerry did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> know why he wanted to climb all those
+eight hundred and ninety-eight steps, but he did. He did a lot of
+thinking and remembering on his way up. That was the way you did when
+you were leaving home, he guessed. He thought of school and home and
+playing baseball&mdash;things like that. And some about George Washington.
+Jerry greatly admired all he had read about him. He was glad they had
+named the capital of the United States for Washington.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry had been at the top of the Monument many times, yet it was
+always a thrill to go from window to window and see each scene below.
+From this one he could see the Capitol and the greenish dome of the
+Library of Congress. From another window he looked down on a crowded
+part of the city. Jerry thought that if he knew just where to look, he
+might see the hospital where he had been born.</p>
+
+<p>The window that overlooked the White House was one of Jerry's favorite
+views. He remembered Easter Mondays when he had gone to roll eggs on
+the White House lawn. He remembered a time when he was five, younger
+than Andy&mdash;a time when he had gotten separated from his mother&mdash;had
+been lost. A Girl Scout had taken him to a place where lost children
+waited to be claimed. A lady played games with them while they waited,
+but a few of the children had cried. Jerry had not cried. He somehow
+felt more like crying now. And even more lost.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Well, he must be on his way. He would take the elevator down, for he
+felt his legs would not last for all of those steps going down. Yet he
+was reluctant to leave the top of the Monument. Each window gave a
+picture postcard view of the city he was leaving. It was up here that
+he was really saying good-by to Washington, D. C.</p>
+
+<p>Why did he have to think just then of the honesty of Lincoln? Or of
+how Washington had stayed with his soldiers through the hardships of
+the winter at Valley Forge? They were not men who had run away from
+the hard things of life. Jerry tried to close his mind against
+thoughts of Lincoln and Washington. They were dead and gone and had
+nothing to do with him. It was no use. It had been a mistake, Jerry
+realized now, to revisit the Memorial and the Monument. Something in
+both places had pulled against his wanting to run away. Suddenly Jerry
+realized that he couldn't do it. He no longer even wanted to run away.
+He wanted to go home.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>11</h2>
+
+<h2>Welcome Home!</h2>
+
+
+<p>It was growing dark by the time Jerry reached home. By now his family
+would know for sure that he was no thief, but Jerry knew it was
+possible that his father would be angry about the charge account, in
+spite of the free box of candy. For a moment Jerry hesitated outside
+the door. Then he squared his shoulders and went in.</p>
+
+<p>The whole family were in the kitchen. Jerry saw every eye turned
+toward him&mdash;every face light up with relief.</p>
+
+<p>"Hi, Jerry, where've you been?" cried Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"I told you he'd come back," said Cathy.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry was so grateful to Cathy for having believed in him even when
+things looked bad that he thought he would never again tease her about
+reading lovey-dovey books or admiring herself in mirrors.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jerry!" cried his mother.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry read the relief and welcome in her face&mdash;the love for him. He
+found that he was no longer angry with his mother. Somewhere on the
+long, long walk, his anger had died. He could understand that it had
+been no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> wonder she had believed the worst of him&mdash;getting that bill
+in the mail and all.</p>
+
+<p>"Got anything to eat?" he asked her.</p>
+
+<p>"We were too worried to eat. None of us has had a bite of dinner."
+Mrs. Martin rushed to the stove and clattered pots and pans as she put
+things on to reheat.</p>
+
+<p>His father's clear blue eyes were on Jerry. "After dinner," he said,
+"you and I will have a little talk."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry did not look forward to that talk, yet it took more than dread
+to spoil his appetite. His mother said that the onions and asparagus
+were not as good as when they had been freshly cooked more than two
+hours ago. But they tasted fine to Jerry. Nor did he mind that the pot
+roast and rolls were reheated. He slathered butter on three rolls and
+would have eaten a fourth if he had not seen the necessity of saving
+room for a piece of apple pie.</p>
+
+<p>Only Andy bothered Jerry with questions while he was eating. "Where
+did you go?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"To the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, if you must
+know," said Jerry. "I walked up but I rode down in the Monument."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all you did?" asked Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"I just walked around."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 398px;">
+<img src="images/image140.png" width="398" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</p>
+
+<p>"Walking around gave you a good appetite," said Mr. Martin, as he cut
+another slice of pot roast for Jerry's plate. "A good thing you don't
+walk around five or six<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> hours every day or I might not be able to
+pay the grocery bill."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry winced. He knew his father meant paying cash for groceries, not
+a grocery bill. His father did not have bills&mdash;never charged things.
+Looking at his father's firm mouth and chin, Jerry wondered how he
+could have expected to win his father over to having a charge account.
+Parents were the way they were and stayed that way. Especially his
+father. It would take much more than half a pound of candy to make him
+change his mind about charge accounts, Jerry now fully realized.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Martin said he and Jerry would have their talk down in the
+recreation room. Jerry noticed his mother and Cathy looked worried.
+Maybe they expected his father to give him a beating. Jerry was a
+little worried about that prospect himself.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry saw Pedro watching them as he and his father sat down on the
+sofa.</p>
+
+<p>"Has Pedro talked any more?" Jerry asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop gawking at that parrot and pay attention to me," said Jerry's
+father.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"You had your mother worried sick."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry said he was sorry.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you stay out so long on purpose to worry her?"</p>
+
+<p>Jerry said that had not been the reason at all. He confessed that he
+had intended to run away to Florida but had changed his mind and come
+home.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Martin's sternness softened. "A good many boys run away from
+home," he said. "The luckiest ones are those who come back before they
+have run too far. It was this charge account business you were running
+away from, wasn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Partly." Jerry could not tell his father that his mother's lack of
+belief in his honesty had had more to do with his running away. Jerry
+did not want to remember how his mother had looked at him. He hoped
+never to bring an expression like that to her face again.</p>
+
+<p>"The worst thing about your scheme for the charge account was that you
+were handling money that belonged to somebody else without his
+permission," said Jerry's father.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean Mr. Bartlett. It was his money but I don't see why&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It was not then Mr. Bartlett's money but mine. You contracted a debt
+in my name and withheld money that had been entrusted to you."</p>
+
+<p>The way his father put it made Jerry feel that he had done something
+nearly bad enough for him to be put in jail.</p>
+
+<p>"I was just trying to prove that it pays to have a charge account at
+Bartlett's," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"You knew very well that I don't have charge accounts or intend to
+have them."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the sin about charging things?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No sin, of course. I didn't say it was. It's a person's right to
+charge anything he wants to. And my right to pay cash, since I prefer
+to do business that way."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess that wasn't a good idea of mine," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Bartlett is a little to blame for what you did," said Mr. Martin.
+"I went to his store and told him in no uncertain terms that I did not
+think it fair for a storekeeper to reward credit customers and do
+nothing for even better cash customers."</p>
+
+<p>"So is he going to stop giving candy to people when they pay their
+bills?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. He says he's sentimental about that old family custom. But he saw
+the justice of my argument. He has decided to give the equivalent of a
+two per cent discount in produce to any customer whose cash receipts
+for a month are more than fifty dollars."</p>
+
+<p>"What does that mean&mdash;in produce?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it could be a bag of potatoes or a box of candy. That's
+entirely up to your mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Not bad. Not bad at all," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"You can wipe that self-satisfied expression right off your face,
+young man," said Jerry's father. "Taking things in your own hands and
+deciding what I should do with <i>my</i> money was wrong and you know it.
+You do know it, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>Jerry said he could see now that it had not been the right thing to
+do.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"When I think of all the time and effort you put in for half a pound
+of candy&mdash;well, I can only hope that someday you'll work as hard at
+something useful."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry wished his father would hurry up and say what his punishment was
+to be.</p>
+
+<p>"Considering that there are extenuating circumstances, I am letting
+you off easy," said his father. "No baseball games for you for the
+rest of the season. Either at the ball park or on television."</p>
+
+<p>"Not even the World Series on television?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not even the World Series."</p>
+
+<p>The punishment did not seem light to Jerry. He was crushed. "Can't I
+even play baseball?"</p>
+
+<p>Jerry's father considered the question. "Suppose we confine the
+restriction to looking at professional baseball."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry sighed in relief. That was not quite as bad. "What are you going
+to do with that box of candy?" he dared ask.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you expected to gorge yourself on it."</p>
+
+<p>"I was going to pass it around," said Jerry. "And take a few pieces
+over to the Bullfinches. He's been awfully nice to me."</p>
+
+<p>"As long as you have it, you may as well pass the candy around," said
+Mr. Martin. "But remember. Don't you ever do such a deceitful thing
+again, Jerry Martin."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't. Honest."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the cage by the window, the big green parrot flapped his wings.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes he does that when he's getting ready to talk," said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>The parrot remarked something in Spanish which Jerry did not
+understand. Then he said "Jerry" quite clearly. "Jerry!" he called in
+his loud, hoarse voice. "Jerry!"</p>
+
+<p>The subdued look on Jerry's face was replaced by a broad smile. "I'm
+the first one in this family he's called by name," he said to his
+father.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a good name," said Mr. Martin. "Your Grandfather Martin's name.
+He made it a name to be proud of. See that you keep it that way."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry said he certainly would try. He really meant to. He and his
+father went back upstairs together. Weary though he was, Jerry felt
+the relief of having that charge account business off his shoulders.
+In spite of being deprived of his beloved ball games, he felt more
+lighthearted than he had for weeks. First, he would pass the candy box
+to Andy and then to the rest of the family. Then, before taking some
+over to the Bullfinches', he would take a green mint down to Pedro.</p>
+
+<p>"If he doesn't like it, I'll eat it myself," thought Jerry.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE <big>Surprise</big><br />
+OF THEIR LIVES</h2>
+
+<h2>by Hazel Wilson</h2>
+
+
+<p>This book contains the amazing story of Mary Jo and James Dunham, who
+lived on Morning Street in Portland, Maine, with their father and
+mother and small sister Ellen.</p>
+
+<p>You wouldn't expect much out of the ordinary to happen to the Dunhams.
+They went about their happy life&mdash;having birthdays and Halloween
+parties, going to school and staying after, getting into barrels and
+the mouths of cannons, quarreling and scolding sometimes, but being
+fond of each other always underneath&mdash;as if it would be that way
+forever.</p>
+
+<p>But you would be reckoning without Lizzie Atkins and scarlet fever if
+you thought the sea would always stay calm with only a few ripples for
+the Dunhams. In fact, it was mostly due to Lizzie, whom some parents
+forbade their children to play with, that Mary Jo and James received
+just about the biggest surprise that could happen to anyone.</p>
+
+<p>This is not the place to tell what the surprise was. You will have to
+read the book to find out.</p>
+
+<h3><i>Drawings and jacket by</i><br />
+Robert Henneberger<br />
+</h3>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 297px;">
+<img src="images/image147.jpg" width="297" height="600" alt="(Hazel Wilson photo by Lange)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">(Hazel Wilson photo by Lange)</span>
+</p>
+
+<h2>HAZEL WILSON</h2>
+
+
+<p>Mrs. Wilson has written several stories with the background of her
+native State of Maine. Among them are <span class="smcap">The Surprise of Their Lives</span>,
+about the amazing adventure of a boy and girl in the days when ocean
+liners docked at Portland, and <span class="smcap">Tall Ships</span>, an exciting tale of
+impressment and sea battles during the War of 1812.</p>
+
+<p>In 1956, Mrs. Wilson's work for children and books, as librarian,
+teacher, and author, was recognized by her own college, Bates, in
+Maine, which awarded her its honorary degree of Master of Arts.</p>
+
+<p>For <span class="smcap">Jerry's Charge Account</span>, she has moved her background to what is
+now her home city, Washington, D.C. Readers will discover that this
+background plays an important part in helping Jerry work out his
+difficulties.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3>
+
+
+<p>Moved some illustrations to avoid breaking up the text. Corrected
+mismatched quotes.</p>
+
+<p>On page 30, changed "his legs for apart" to "his legs far apart".</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Jerry's Charge Account, by Hazel Hutchins Wilson
+
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@@ -0,0 +1,4253 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Jerry's Charge Account, by Hazel Hutchins Wilson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Jerry's Charge Account
+
+Author: Hazel Hutchins Wilson
+
+Illustrator: Charles Geer
+
+Release Date: November 26, 2008 [EBook #27211]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JERRY'S CHARGE ACCOUNT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Diane Monico, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+JERRY'S
+
+CHARGE
+
+ACCOUNT
+
+by Hazel Wilson
+
+
+Jerry Martin asked for it. If the candy in Mr. Bartlett's store hadn't
+looked so good to him, he wouldn't have started the charge account and
+he would have escaped all that worry and trouble.
+
+The worst thing about it was that it was sort of fun, too. It was fun
+keeping his twin sister Cathy guessing, fun trying to keep his secret
+from the family, especially his little brother Andy.
+
+So Jerry kept getting deeper and deeper into his predicament, like a
+man in quicksand. The plain fact was, Jerry's father didn't approve of
+charge accounts, and Jerry wasn't likely to change his mind for him,
+candy or no candy. Then, when somebody broke into Mr. Bullfinch's
+house next door, the trouble became serious.
+
+There is laughter and suspense, and a hidden lesson in this story of
+an impulsive boy and his true-to-life family.
+
+
+Illustrated by
+Charles Geer
+
+
+
+
+_BOOKS BY HAZEL WILSON_
+
+THE SURPRISE OF THEIR LIVES
+
+TALL SHIPS
+
+THE RED DORY
+
+JERRY'S CHARGE ACCOUNT
+
+
+
+
+Jerry's
+Charge
+Account
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+JERRY'S
+CHARGE
+ACCOUNT
+
+by Hazel Wilson
+
+with illustrations by Charles Geer
+
+LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY
+
+BOSTON . TORONTO
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, (C), 1960, BY HAZEL WILSON
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY
+FORM WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER, EXCEPT BY A
+REVIEWER WHO MAY QUOTE BRIEF PASSAGES IN A REVIEW TO BE PRINTED IN A
+MAGAZINE OR NEWSPAPER.
+
+LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NO. 60-5877
+
+FOURTH PRINTING
+
+Published simultaneously in Canada by Little, Brown & Company (Canada)
+Limited
+
+PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Project Gutenberg was not able to find a U. S.
+copyright renewal.]
+
+
+
+
+This book is affectionately dedicated to
+Gregory and Kevin
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+ 1  Charge It, Please                      3
+
+ 2  Change for a Ten-Dollar Bill          18
+
+ 3  P. T. A. Meeting                      29
+
+ 4  No Safe Hiding Place                  44
+
+ 5  New Neighbors                         56
+
+ 6  "The Stars and Stripes Forever"       66
+
+ 7  Working on Andy                       81
+
+ 8  The Auction                           93
+
+ 9  As Good as a Watchdog                107
+
+10  May Day                              125
+
+11  Welcome Home!                        138
+
+
+
+
+Jerry's
+
+Charge
+
+Account
+
+
+
+
+1
+
+Charge It, Please
+
+
+Jerry tried to be quiet, but he bumped into the one chair in the
+kitchen on his way to the kitchen cupboard. And it was not his fault
+that the cream pitcher fell when he took the sugarbowl from the shelf.
+Jerry made a quick and nice southpaw catch. Pretty good, he thought,
+for a right-hander. He hadn't been able to use his right because it
+was holding the sugarbowl. He had dumped the sugar into a cereal dish
+and was busily pouring salt into the sugarbowl when his mother entered
+the kitchen.
+
+"What on earth are you doing up so early on Saturday?" Mrs. Martin
+asked sleepily. "It's only half-past six."
+
+Jerry's blue eyes begged his mother to share a joke with him. "I woke
+up and remembered it's April Fools' Day," he said and chuckled. "Can't
+you just see Dad's face when he tastes his coffee with two spoonfuls
+of salt in it instead of sugar?"
+
+"No, Jerry," said his mother. "No. It wouldn't be at all funny to
+spoil your father's morning coffee. It would be tragic. Put the salt
+back, rinse out the sugarbowl, and refill it with sugar. And no more
+April-fooling with your father's breakfast."
+
+"Aw, I never can have any fun around here," Jerry complained. Salt
+spilled on the floor when he poured it from the sugarbowl back into
+the spout of the salt box.
+
+"Sweep it up," ordered his mother, and Jerry had to get out the brush
+and dustpan.
+
+When he went to the sink to rinse the sugarbowl, Jerry turned on the
+hot water so hard that he had to draw his hand back quickly or it
+would have been scalded. The sugarbowl fell in the sink and broke.
+
+"Oh, dear! I need cast-iron dishes instead of china if you're to
+handle them," scolded Mrs. Martin.
+
+"It just slipped out of my hands. I can mend it. That new glue I
+bought last week will mend china, glass, wood--anything. It says so on
+the tube."
+
+Jerry looked so sorry for having broken the sugarbowl that his mother
+stopped being cross. "It was cracked anyway," she said consolingly.
+"Now go get dressed. As long as you're up you may as well stay up.
+Maybe I can get a little work out of you since you've got such an
+early start on the day."
+
+Jerry groaned. What a dreary word--work! Just hearing it made him feel
+tired.
+
+"I'll have pancakes ready in fifteen minutes," said his mother
+brightly. "With real maple syrup," she added.
+
+Jerry could tell that she was tempting his appetite so he would not be
+tempted to go back to bed again. He did not mind. He was wide awake.
+It would be a novelty to have breakfast so early on a Saturday. Almost
+an April Fool joke on his mother.
+
+"And to think that last Saturday I could hardly get you out of bed at
+ten," said his mother as he left the kitchen.
+
+At a little before nine Jerry had a broom in his hand. His orders were
+to sweep off the front steps. He went at it in a very leisurely
+manner. The sooner he finished the sooner his mother might give him
+some other chore to do. Even though Laura, the pleasant
+three-times-a-week maid, did most of the cleaning, Mrs. Martin
+believed her children should have a few household chores. Cathy,
+Jerry's twin sister, had to do the breakfast dishes on Saturdays, and
+even five-year-old Andy, the youngest member of the Martin family, was
+supposed to empty the wastebaskets.
+
+Jerry's lazy broom finished the top step and began on the second. Then
+it occurred to him that it had been some time since he had
+investigated what was under the steps. He put down his broom while he
+knelt and applied one eye to one of the holes bored in the steps. The
+hole was big enough so if somebody dropped a dime just right it would
+go through. No dimes down there today.
+
+As Jerry got to his feet he looked with approval at the big white
+clapboarded house where he lived. The morning sun made the small-paned
+windows shine. The Martin house was on the very edge of northwest
+Washington, D. C. It had been one of the original farmhouses when
+that part of Washington had been country, not city. Now there were
+houses all around, and it had been remodeled long before the Martins
+had bought it. Jerry's father and mother were proud of the old
+floorboards and wide fireplaces. Jerry especially liked the house
+because it had an attic and a big garage that had been a barn.
+
+As he picked up his broom again, his twin sister came to the door to
+shake a dustcloth. Also, he was sure, to check up on what he was
+doing.
+
+"Cathy!" cried Jerry. "There's a great big spider crawling up your
+left leg."
+
+Cathy did not let a yip out of her. "You can't April-fool me that
+easy," she said in a superior-sounding way that irritated Jerry.
+
+Lately he and his twin often irritated each other. For one thing Cathy
+had recently developed an intense interest in how she looked, which
+seemed silly to Jerry.
+
+"Better wipe that black off your left cheek," he said, and laughed
+when Cathy raised her hand to her cheek. "April Fool! Got you that
+time," he exulted.
+
+"Think you're smart, don't you?" grumbled Cathy. "Half the time you
+don't even notice it when your face is dirty. To say nothing of your
+ears."
+
+Jerry swushed dirt off a step and changed the subject. "Have you
+fooled anybody yet this morning?" he asked.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Just Andy. I asked him if he knew that Bibsy had grown another head
+during the night, and he almost cried when he found I was
+April-fooling him. He said he had always wanted a two-headed cat. Then
+when I asked him if he had seen the alligator under the dining room
+table, he wouldn't look. He just said, 'What's a nalligator?' I told
+him it was like Mummy's handbag only much, much bigger, and he wants
+to see a real one. Mummy says we must take him to the zoo someday
+soon. But I can't remember seeing an alligator there, can you?"
+
+Cathy tossed her head, giving her pony tail a little exercise.
+
+"Too bad you didn't say seal instead of alligator. There _are_ seals
+at the zoo. Say, I wouldn't mind going to the zoo this forenoon. Even
+if we have to take Andy. Want to?"
+
+"Nope. Mummy's taking me to town to buy a new dress for Easter."
+Cathy's eyes were bright with expectation.
+
+It was beyond Jerry why Cathy should be pleased to waste good playing
+time in town buying a dress. She didn't used to be that way. She used
+to complain bitterly about having to change from blue jeans into a
+dress. She still liked wearing jeans, yet there came a shine in her
+eyes at even the mention of buying a new dress. Mummy said that
+eleven-going-on-twelve was getting to be a young lady. "Rats!" thought
+Jerry. It was silly for Cathy to begin to be young-lady-like when she
+could throw a baseball just about as well as a boy and sometimes
+better.
+
+"Jerry!" called his mother from a front window. "I want you to run to
+the store for me. Right away."
+
+"Can't Cathy go?" Jerry really did not mind running (though he usually
+walked or rode his bike to the store) but it was a matter of principle
+with him to make a try at getting out of work.
+
+"I have other things for Cathy to do," said Mrs. Martin and shut the
+window.
+
+There were two steps still unswept but Jerry left them untouched by
+his lazy broom. After all, how could he be expected to do two things
+at once? He wished, not for the first time, that his mother would do
+her grocery shopping at the supermarket, which was far enough away so
+she would have to take the car. Instead, she mostly traded at
+Bartlett's, a small old-fashioned store three blocks from where the
+Martin family lived.
+
+"There aren't many small grocery stores left and since we have one
+right in the neighborhood I like to patronize it," Jerry had heard his
+mother say. She liked stores where the owner came to wait on you. But
+Jerry suspected that one reason she traded at Bartlett's was because
+she thought it was good for a boy to run errands.
+
+Going to the store was Jerry's chief chore. "Just because her
+grandfather had to chop wood and milk cows before breakfast when he
+was a boy, she thinks she should keep _me_ busy," he grumbled to
+himself as he went in the house. "Why do I have to go to the store?
+Bartlett delivers. Why can't she telephone her order and have it
+delivered?"
+
+He knew that the answer to that was more than his mother's desire to
+keep him busy. It was partly because she did not like to plan meals
+ahead. A brisk cold day might make her feel like having pork chops and
+hot applesauce for dinner. Or for a warm day, a platter of cold cuts
+and deviled eggs.
+
+"It's just the day for calves' liver and bacon," she might say when
+Jerry got home from school in the afternoon. And she would send him to
+the store for a pound and a half of fresh calves' liver cut thin, "the
+way Mr. Bartlett knows I like it." A meal, his mother thought, should
+match her mood or the weather. She kept a few frozen vegetables on
+hand in case of need, but she much preferred fresh vegetables, freshly
+cut steaks and chops--fresh almost anything which could be bought
+fresh.
+
+"I know it's a frozen food age but I still prefer my meat and
+vegetables fresh," Mrs. Martin often said. That meant a lot of trips
+to the store. Too many, Jerry thought. Especially on Saturdays, when
+she needed a lot of things.
+
+His mother was in the kitchen mixing dough for doughnuts. Jerry was
+glad she made doughnuts instead of buying bakery ones. How good
+doughnuts tasted hot out of the fat! He wished a few of them were done
+so he could have two or three to eat on his way to the store.
+
+"Want me to fry 'em for you and then go to the store?" he offered.
+
+"No. I need a carton of sour cream right away for my chocolate cake.
+And, let me see--five pounds of Idaho potatoes, two pounds of ground
+round steak--I feel like having meat loaf tonight--and two acorn
+squash, an avocado, a dozen oranges, and one loaf of white bread and
+one of whole wheat. Oh, and I've already telephoned and told Mr.
+Bartlett that you would be in to pick up a leg of lamb. He has spring
+lamb just in. You'll have to take your cart. There'll be too much for
+you to carry in your bicycle basket."
+
+Jerry had felt lately that he was too old to be dragging home a cart
+filled with groceries. "How long will it be before Andy can take that
+old cart to the store? He can have it to keep any old time he'll take
+it to the store after groceries."
+
+"You've only had it a year. Said you would be sure to use it for
+years. And you know Andy isn't nearly old enough to take a big cart
+out of the yard. Now run along. And don't stop to play on the way
+home."
+
+Jerry got his cart out of the garage. The wheels squeaked but that
+didn't bother him. He met a couple of boys in his grade at school on
+his way to the store and arranged for baseball later.
+
+Bartlett's store was on a street zoned only for houses, yet because
+the store had been there before the zoning law was passed it had been
+allowed to remain. The present proprietor was the third generation of
+Bartletts who had sold groceries there. He was a stout, pink-faced
+man, quite bald in front. Jerry said that Mr. Bartlett's forehead
+went way to the back of his head. When Jerry went in the store, Mr.
+Bartlett was waiting on a tall woman with a blue scarf over her head,
+and Bill, the clerk who put up orders, was tossing groceries into
+cartons, each carton for a customer.
+
+Jerry had to wait while the woman with the blue scarf decided what she
+would have for Sunday dinner. It seemed to take her a long time to
+make up her mind. After trying without much success to engage Bill in
+conversation, Jerry stood in front of the candy showcase next to the
+cash register and wished he had money with him besides the ten-dollar
+bill his mother had given him to pay for the groceries.
+
+My, but the candy looked yummy! There were glass trays of round mints,
+pink, white, green, and yellow. And caramels, chocolate-covered nuts,
+coconut bonbons, chocolate nougats--nothing there Jerry didn't like.
+He looked at the candy yearningly.
+
+Now the lady had decided on a sirloin steak, thank goodness. Another
+customer came in but Jerry would be next to be waited on. He would
+speak right up and say he was next if Mr. Bartlett started to wait on
+somebody else first, he decided.
+
+The lady wearing the blue scarf reached into her handbag and got out
+her billfold. "I want to pay my March grocery bill," she said. She
+stood beside Jerry near the cash register while Mr. Bartlett was
+behind the counter giving her change.
+
+"Don't go off without your little bonus," said Mr. Bartlett. "My daddy
+and my granddaddy before him always gave folks a little bonus when
+they paid their bills."
+
+Jerry saw Mr. Bartlett get out a half-pound pasteboard box. Saw him
+reach in the showcase and bring out enough candy to fill two rows in
+the box. Jerry had heard that Mr. Bartlett gave candy to charge
+customers when they paid their bills, but he had never before been in
+the store and seen it happen. The sight saddened him. For he knew that
+never for him would Mr. Bartlett fill a half-pound box of candy as a
+gift. The Martin family never charged groceries. They never charged
+anything. Mr. Martin believed in paying cash for everything. Even for
+a new car. He was funny that way. Jerry had never much minded until
+this minute when he saw a charge customer rewarded for being a charge
+customer.
+
+"Wish we had a charge account. I wouldn't have to worry about losing
+money on the way home, if we did," thought Jerry, remembering the
+tendency of loose change to fall out of his pocket when he jumped over
+hedges. "Besides, Mr. Bartlett must want people to have charge
+accounts or he wouldn't give them a bonus when they pay their bills.
+Stands to reason. He likes to have folks charge their groceries
+instead of paying cash, so a charge account must be a good thing. Wish
+my father thought so. If he were here and saw Mr. Bartlett hand over
+that free candy, he'd be bound to see it pays to charge your
+groceries."
+
+"Now, young man, what can I do for you?" asked Mr. Bartlett. Jerry had
+been thinking so hard about the advantages of having a charge account
+that he had hard work remembering what his mother had sent him to the
+store for. But he managed to recollect all but the avocado. Jerry
+didn't like avocados so it was easy for him to forget that. It was
+while Mr. Bartlett was counting out a dozen oranges that Jerry had
+what he considered a very bright idea. There was a way he could
+convince his father that Bartlett's store was the one place where it
+didn't pay to pay cash.
+
+"It won't be dishonest," Jerry argued to himself. "I won't be getting
+a cent out of it. Only a box of candy at the end of the month. And if
+we eat an awful lot and the bill is nice and big for April, maybe Mr.
+Bartlett will give me a pound box of candy instead of a half pound."
+
+The plan that had popped into Jerry's mind was this--he would not pay
+for groceries for the month of April but charge them. He would keep in
+a safe place the money his mother gave him to pay for them. And the
+first day of May he would come in with it and pay the bill and be
+given a box of candy.
+
+"When I take the candy home and pass the box to Dad, he'll see it's a
+good thing to charge our groceries," thought Jerry. The scene was so
+vivid in his mind that he could almost see his father taking a
+chocolate-covered almond.
+
+"I said that will be eight dollars and twenty-one cents," said Mr.
+Bartlett, a bit impatiently.
+
+Jerry reached in his pocket and got out his mother's coin purse. He
+preferred carrying money loose in his pocket but she had said he could
+risk losing his own money that way, not hers. It was while he was
+opening the purse that he suddenly decided to try out his bright idea.
+
+"Charge it, please," he said huskily.
+
+"You folks opening a charge account?" asked Mr. Bartlett.
+
+"Isn't that all right with you?"
+
+"Sure. Sure. You've been trading with me for years. And your father's
+credit is good as gold, which is more than I can say for some." Mr.
+Bartlett made out a slip, which he put in the bag of groceries.
+
+"He knows me and can tell I'm honest," thought Jerry happily, as he
+put the heavy bag of groceries in his cart. The grocery slip he took
+out of the bag and put in his pocket. "I must remember to save all the
+slips," he thought.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jerry was almost home when he remembered that his ten-dollar bill was
+still unbroken. And that he had to have change to give his mother
+before he could put the eight dollars and twenty-one cents the
+groceries cost in a safe hiding place. It was Mr. Bartlett's money,
+Jerry thought. Jerry would just be keeping the money for him until a
+month was up.
+
+Jerry was reluctant to go back to Bartlett's store and ask to have his
+bill changed. He was sure Mr. Bartlett would think it odd, after he
+had charged the groceries.
+
+"I'll have to walk way down to the shopping center," thought Jerry.
+Thinking about all the streets he would have to cross, with the
+trouble of getting the heavy cart up and down the curbs, Jerry was not
+so sure that starting a charge account had been such a good idea after
+all. He had a feeling that in a way he might have played sort of an
+April Fool joke on himself. But it was too late now to undo what he
+had done. He would feel like a ninny going back and telling Mr.
+Bartlett that he had decided to pay cash, that he had changed his mind
+about opening a charge account for the Martin family.
+
+"I'll get my bill changed at the A & P," Jerry decided. And went so
+fast in that direction that the bag holding the potatoes fell out of
+the cart and broke and Jerry lost two of them down a sewer. After that
+he went more slowly, though he found it hard to make the heavy cart go
+downhill slowly. It made his arms ache holding it back.
+
+
+
+
+2
+
+Change for a Ten-Dollar Bill
+
+
+Having to drag a heavy cart with a big bag of groceries in it nearly a
+mile to the shopping center became considerable of a chore even before
+Jerry was halfway there.
+
+"Lemme see," he thought as he bumped the cart down a curb. "I know I
+have to put away eight dollars and twenty-one cents for Mr. Bartlett.
+How much is that from ten dollars? That's the right change for Mummy."
+
+Jerry had a pained look on his face as he tried to do the subtraction
+in his head. He was never any good in mental arithmetic. Give him a
+pencil in his hand and he could do pretty well at figuring. But his
+mind seemed to go blank when he had to carry and all that in his head.
+He reached in all his pockets but did not have a pencil. And he knew
+he had to ask for the right change.
+
+Just then Jerry saw Carl Weston coming up the street. He was a
+classmate of Jerry's in the sixth grade. He wore thick-lensed glasses
+and was quite a brain. He'd be almost sure to have a pencil or a
+ballpoint pen. But Jerry asked him and he didn't, so Jerry gave him a
+line about being a whiz at arithmetic and said he bet Carl could say
+right off how much money you'd have left if you subtracted eight
+dollars and twenty-one cents from ten dollars.
+
+For a few seconds Jerry saw a human adding-machine at work. Then Carl
+said, "One dollar and seventy-nine cents, of course." He didn't add
+"Stupid," but he looked as if that were what he was thinking. Jerry
+didn't care. He knew a lot of important things Carl didn't know, such
+as baseball averages and who were the home-run kings for the past five
+years.
+
+"Thanks, Carl. See you." And Jerry hurried off before Carl could ask
+just why he wanted to know the answer to that particular sum in
+subtraction. "One dollar and seventy-nine cents," Jerry kept saying to
+himself so he wouldn't forget.
+
+There were long lines of shoppers at the checking-out counters at the
+A & P. Jerry had left his cart outside the store, thinking it not
+tactful to bring in a big bag of groceries he had bought in another
+store. He took his place in what he thought was the shortest line.
+Some woman had forgotten to have her bag of bananas weighed and that
+held up the line. The next woman wanted to cash a check and that had
+to be okayed by the manager. Jerry fidgeted. He saw that the woman
+ahead of the woman ahead of him had a cart so piled with groceries
+that she must be feeding a boardinghouse, or an awfully big family.
+
+It was all of fifteen minutes, but seemed twice as long, before Jerry
+reached the clerk behind the counter and asked for change.
+
+"Sorry, but I'm short of change," said the young man behind the
+counter.
+
+A wave of discouragement swept over Jerry. Perhaps storekeepers
+wouldn't give change to anybody who wasn't buying anything. But he had
+to get his ten-dollar bill changed. He didn't have the heart to wait
+in another line to see if another clerk might give him change. He went
+out. He would have to try another store.
+
+He opened the door of the florist shop and backed out. The woman in
+charge there looked just too elegant to approach. At the hardware
+store he was told that he could have two fives for a ten if that would
+help him. It wouldn't, so Jerry still had his ten-dollar bill
+unchanged.
+
+Here was the barbershop. One particular barber usually cut Jerry's
+hair. Jerry was glad to find that George was not busy.
+
+"Thought I gave you a haircut less than a week ago," George greeted
+him. "Did you come in to get your head shaved? Be cooler, warm weather
+coming on."
+
+Jerry explained that he was satisfied with the state of his crew cut.
+Rather timidly he asked to have his ten-dollar bill changed, told the
+exact change he had to have.
+
+"Guess I can oblige you, but Saturday's a bad day for change, with the
+banks closed all day," said George. He went to the cash register and
+counted out the change Jerry needed.
+
+"Thank _you_," said Jerry with great heartiness.
+
+Now to get home in a hurry. He went out to get his cart, which he had
+left outside the barbershop. A big red setter dog was pawing the bag
+of groceries. "Red! Get away from there!" Jerry yelled. With horror he
+saw that the dog had the leg of lamb in his strong jaws.
+
+"Drop that, Red!" shouted Jerry. He ran and grabbed the other end of
+the leg of lamb and tried to get it away from the dog.
+
+Red was a good-natured animal who often seemed to forget he was a dog,
+he so much wanted to be one of the boys. He especially enjoyed taking
+part in baseball games. He ran bases and barked as loud as any of the
+players could shout. Last Saturday Jerry might have made a home run if
+Red had not dashed in front of him so Jerry fell over him. Now Red
+thought a tug of war with a leg of lamb was a fine game.
+
+Jerry pulled. The red setter braced his legs and pulled.
+
+"You mean dog! Leggo! Leggo!" screamed Jerry.
+
+The desperation in his voice finally had an effect on Red's tender
+heart. He let go of his end of the leg of lamb so suddenly that Jerry
+sat down hard. The leg of lamb fell in the dirt.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jerry brushed off bits of gravel from his Sunday dinner. Red's teeth
+marks didn't show unless you looked very closely. Jerry wrapped the
+leg of lamb in the torn paper bag. It was a lucky thing he had come
+out of the barbershop before Red had run off with it. "That dog is
+getting to be a nuisance," he thought. But he really liked Red and had
+often wished he were one of the Martin family instead of belonging to
+a neighbor.
+
+It was uphill most of the way home. Jerry got pretty tired of pulling
+his heavy cart. He wished he could think up a way of motorizing it,
+fix it up like sort of a four-wheeled motor scooter. Maybe put an
+engine on the back like an outboard motor. Such speculations helped
+pass the time, but he was tired before he got home.
+
+It was disappointing to find that the doughnuts had been fried and put
+away. And Mrs. Martin, dressed for town, scolded Jerry soundly for
+being over an hour going to the store.
+
+"I had to postpone making my cake," she said sharply, "for if Cathy
+and I are to get any shopping done and get back in time for lunch, we
+have to start. You'll have to look after Andy. Take him with you but
+keep an eye on him if you go out with the boys."
+
+"Other boys don't have to have their little brothers tagging along,"
+complained Jerry.
+
+"Don't try my patience too far or you won't go out at all."
+
+Jerry saw a look in his mother's eyes that made him wary of making
+her any more displeased with him than she already was.
+
+"All right, I'll take him. If Red follows us to the park Andy can play
+with him and keep that big nuisance from trying to play ball with us."
+
+Jerry was relieved when his mother unpacked the groceries and did not
+notice that anything unusual had happened to the leg of lamb.
+
+"Where's my change?" she asked.
+
+Jerry almost got out Mr. Bartlett's eight dollars and twenty-one
+cents. Hastily he switched his hand to another pocket for the one
+dollar and seventy-nine cents due his mother. He handed it over, his
+eyes downcast. For some reason he did not want to meet his mother's
+eye just then. Whenever she looked him straight in the eye, Jerry had
+always found it next to impossible to keep anything from her.
+
+"Thank you for going to the store for me. But honestly, Jerry, you're
+too old for me to have to tell you every time not to stop and play on
+the way home," she said.
+
+Play! So that was what she thought he had been doing. Little did she
+know how little like play it was. Jerry had to stifle the impulse to
+tell her all he had been through in the past hour and a half.
+
+"Saturday's a busy time at the grocery stores," he said.
+
+His mother let that pass for an excuse. She was in a hurry to be off.
+And Jerry could tell that his twin sister was pleased with his being
+stuck with looking after Andy while she was off admiring herself in
+store mirrors.
+
+"Don't let Andy lose his windbreaker," she warned in an almost grownup
+manner. Trying to button her jacket and hold on to her red patent
+leather handbag at the same time, she dropped the bag and its contents
+spilled on the floor.
+
+With horror Jerry saw that Cathy had been carrying a lipstick of shiny
+gold-colored metal. "Don't tell me you've taken to using lipstick! You
+trying to look like a clown?"
+
+"It's just from the dime store. To use if my lips get chapped. Take
+your foot off that, Jerry Martin. Oh, you've bent it," she cried.
+
+"Want me to wipe away your tears?" taunted Jerry. That was his latest
+favorite remark. He said it whether it was appropriate or not, liking
+the sound of it and the reaction it drew from family and playmates.
+Now Cathy tossed her head and glared at him.
+
+"I _was_ sorry that Andy broke your model satellite but now I'm not."
+
+"Who cares?"
+
+"Make Jerry stop being so aggravating," Cathy begged her mother.
+
+"Come on. We haven't time to try to reform your brother this morning.
+Be a good boy, Andy. Mind Jerry. Don't let your little brother out of
+your sight, Jerry."
+
+Jerry was relieved when his mother and sister had gone. It gave him a
+chance to find a good hiding place for Mr. Bartlett's eight dollars
+and twenty-one cents. Somewhere up attic would be the best place, he
+decided.
+
+"You play with your blocks. I have to go up attic for a minute," Jerry
+told Andy.
+
+"I'll go with you."
+
+"No, you don't."
+
+It took several minutes to get Andy so interested in his toys that he
+consented to be left while Jerry went up attic. Then he dashed up two
+flights of stairs. Now where should he hide the money? In the drawer
+of that old chest? No, his mother was forever cleaning out drawers. In
+one of the garment bags in which were hung out-of-season clothes? That
+might do. He would need the hiding place only for the month of
+April--before warm weather. Because it was a cool day it seemed to
+Jerry that it would be ages before anybody needed summer clothes. He
+put Mr. Bartlett's money in one of his mother's shoes, a white one he
+found in the bottom of one of the garment bags.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jerry felt that he had been engaged in quite an enterprise. "And I've
+not gone to all this work just for myself," he argued in his mind as
+he zipped up the garment bag. "I'm doing it for the whole family. For
+I'm not going to hog the candy for myself. Course I may help myself to
+a piece or two when I get it. No, I'll bring the whole box home and
+pass it around," he decided generously. "And if Dad is convinced, and
+that box of free candy should convince him that it _is_ a good thing
+to charge groceries at Bartlett's, we'll go on charging them. Every
+month. At the end of a year I bet we'll have gotten more than five
+pounds of free candy. Oh, boy!"
+
+Small footsteps sounded and there was Andy.
+
+"Downstairs was lonesome," he said plaintively.
+
+"Okay, I'm all through with what I was doing up here. I'll get my bat
+and ball and we'll go out."
+
+"I'll play ball with you."
+
+"Tell you what you can do, Andy. I'll let you hold my catcher's mitt
+when I'm not using it. And I'll throw you a few easy ones. You're old
+enough to begin to learn to play baseball."
+
+Andy looked so pleased that Jerry's heart warmed to him. He decided
+that when Mr. Bartlett presented that box of candy, Andy should have
+the first pick.
+
+"He can have his choice of any piece in the box," thought Jerry
+benevolently. And waited quite patiently while Andy came down the
+stairs slowly all the way like a grownup and not two feet on the same
+step like a baby. Sometimes Jerry did not mind having Andy tag along
+as much as he made out.
+
+
+
+
+3
+
+P. T. A. Meeting
+
+
+"Why did it have to be pleasant all week and then rain on Saturday?"
+thought Jerry unhappily the following Saturday. He watched the rain
+slant against the front windows for a while and then picked up the
+morning paper to reread the comics. "April showers may bring May
+flowers, but it's tough on baseball," he said to himself.
+
+Andy came in the living room. He had a much folded and unfolded sheet
+of paper in his hand. "Help me learn my piece, will you, Jerry? I can
+read pictures but not hard words. But I know most of my piece. Cathy
+teached me."
+
+Andy was to make his first public appearance at the P. T. A. meeting
+Monday evening. His kindergarten class was to perform a short play
+about Goldilocks and the three bears. Once a year the Oakhurst
+elementary school put on a program by the pupils for the parents. This
+year Cathy was to sing in a girls' chorus and Jerry, one of a rhythm
+band, was to shake bells during the playing of "The Stars and Stripes
+Forever" by John Philip Sousa. Andy had an important part on the
+program. He was to speak a poem to introduce the play about
+Goldilocks. Miss Prouty, his teacher, called it the prologue. Andy
+called it his log piece.
+
+Jerry took the grimy piece of paper. "Let's hear it," he told Andy.
+"Shoot."
+
+Andy stood with his legs far apart, his head tilted upward as if he
+were reading his "piece" from the ceiling. His usually merry face
+looked solemn, his dark eyes worried. Hardly above a whisper he
+recited:
+
+    We welcome you, dear parents,
+      And hope you'll like our play.
+    'Twas written by Miss Prouty's class
+      Just for the P. T. A.
+
+"How could your class write a play when you don't even know how to
+write?" asked Jerry.
+
+"I can print all my name," said Andy in his normal voice. "Miss Prouty
+says that part of writing is thinking and saying. So she read
+'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' to us three times. Then our class
+said it to her and she wrote it down. But she wrote my log piece by
+herself."
+
+"You'd better say the first verse again and a lot louder," Jerry
+suggested. "Nobody will hear you if you don't speak good and loud."
+
+So Andy said the first verse again good and loud. He made the phrase
+"Just for the P. T. A." sound like a football yell.
+
+"Good! That ought to wow 'em. Now say the next verse."
+
+Again Andy's eyes sought the ceiling.
+
+    You may have heard the story
+      Of this girl with golden hair,
+    Who lost her way in a dark wood--
+
+Andy could not remember what came next.
+
+"Belonging to a bear," Jerry prompted. "I don't remember that the
+story said anything about Papa Bear owning the woods, but maybe he
+did. Go on, Andy."
+
+Andy could not remember any of the last verse, so Jerry read it to him
+slowly.
+
+    I won't go on with the story,
+      For our play will now portray
+    What happened to little Goldilocks
+      The day she lost her way.
+
+"Say it, Andy," urged Jerry.
+
+Andy pouted. "I don't want to. I hate my log piece," he said fiercely.
+"I wanted to be the great big bear. I wanted to say, 'Who's been
+eating my porridge?' I can talk the loudest. But Ned Brooks is going
+to be the great big bear." Andy's lower lip quivered. He looked ready
+to bawl.
+
+"Want to hear some keen poetry?" asked Jerry, hoping to cheer Andy.
+
+Andy showed no sign of wanting to but Jerry did not wait for
+encouragement. With a lilt of enjoyment in his voice he said a rhyme
+he had learned sometime--he could not remember when or where.
+
+    Gene, Gene--had a machine.
+    Joe, Joe--made it go.
+    Frank, Frank--turned the crank.
+    His mother came out and gave him a spank,
+    And threw him over a sandbank.
+
+The last two lines Jerry said very rapidly, coming out good and strong
+on the word _sandbank_.
+
+Like April weather Andy's stormy face turned sunny. "Say it again," he
+said delightedly.
+
+Jerry obliged.
+
+"Say it again," Andy begged when Jerry had finished the second time.
+
+"Say, what do you think I am, a phonograph record?" asked Jerry. But
+he good-naturedly recited the rhyme a third time.
+
+"I can say it," cried Andy. And he recited the rhyme without
+forgetting a word.
+
+"Say, you can learn like a shot when you really want to," said Jerry
+admiringly.
+
+"I don't think that's a nice poem to teach to Andy," said Cathy, who
+had come in and listened to her small brother.
+
+"I'd like to know why not?" asked Jerry.
+
+"Poetry should be beautiful," said Cathy dreamily. "Like that poem
+Miss Kitteridge read us day before yesterday.
+
+"Life has loveliness to sell," quoted Cathy.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Blah! That stinks," said Jerry. "But I liked it when Miss Kitteridge
+read us 'Casey at the Bat.' That's _good_ poetry."
+
+"Not as good as poetry by Sara Teasdale."
+
+"It is, too."
+
+"It is not."
+
+"There's no law that says that everybody has to like the same kind of
+poetry," said Mrs. Martin from the doorway. "You twins don't have to
+show dispositions to match the weather. Just because it's unpleasant
+you don't need to be. I want you to run to the store, Jerry, and get
+two pounds or a little over of haddock. I had intended to have cold
+roast beef for dinner but it's such a chilly day I think a good New
+England fish chowder will just hit the spot."
+
+"But I went to the store this morning," protested Jerry.
+
+"And you took time enough getting home with them to have grown the
+vegetables and slaughtered the meat."
+
+Jerry looked at the floor. "I'll go," he said in a dull voice as if
+the burden of life was heavy.
+
+With leaden feet Jerry went out to the garage for his bike. He had a
+five-dollar bill in his mother's coin purse and he was worrying about
+how he was going to get it changed. Every time his mother had asked
+him to go to the store all week Jerry had worried about getting the
+right change. This morning had been the worst. He had had to take his
+cart again and that had slowed him up. Then when he had walked in the
+rain all the long way to the shopping centre, George, the barber, had
+not been a bit obliging.
+
+George had been busy when Jerry had come in the barbershop. Nor did he
+look up when Jerry spoke to him, giving him a pleasant "Good morning."
+Of course Jerry had waited until George was not busy before asking him
+for change for a ten. Jerry needed only forty cents to take back to
+his mother this time. George had been very reluctant to change Jerry's
+bill.
+
+"You're getting to be a nuisance, running in to get bills changed,"
+George had complained. But he had given Jerry nine dollars in bills
+and a dollar in change for his ten.
+
+Jerry dreaded to have to ask George for change twice the same day. He
+had never had to do that before. But where else could he get change?
+All the way to the store he worried.
+
+Jerry was the only customer in Bartlett's store. And Mr. Bartlett did
+have some nice haddock. Jerry had hoped he would be out of fish but no
+such luck.
+
+"Nasty day," said Mr. Bartlett, as he weighed the fish.
+
+Jerry agreed. It seemed to him to be a particularly nasty day. He put
+the grocery slip in his pocket and hurried out of the store. Even the
+sight of the candy in the showcase had not lifted his spirits. The
+half pound of candy he might get when he paid the bill at the end of
+the month seemed a small reward for all he was going through to earn
+it. "Only three weeks to go," he told himself, putting the package of
+fish in his bicycle basket. But three weeks seemed a long time.
+
+Maybe it hadn't been a good idea, this charging business. But it was
+no good time to stop now. He would have no candy to present to his
+parents to prove the advantage of charging groceries at Bartlett's.
+No, having begun, Jerry had to see it through.
+
+"Might as well get killed for a sheep as a lamb," Jerry thought,
+riding through a puddle on his way to the shopping center. It was a
+remark he had heard his father make, and seemed somehow appropriate.
+
+Jerry had to wait and wait before George would notice him.
+
+"Don't tell me you've come again for change!" George cried. "I won't
+give it to you."
+
+"Please, just this one time," Jerry pleaded. "I have to have it.
+Honest."
+
+Grumbling, George went to the cash register and changed the bill. Then
+he took Jerry firmly by the shoulder. "Out you go and stay out. I
+don't want to see hide nor hair of you again until you need your next
+haircut. Understand?"
+
+Jerry understood. He realized that getting bills changed at the
+barbershop was over.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jerry was not his usual buoyant self over the weekend. His mother
+thought he might be getting a cold and gave him vitamin pills and made
+him drink extra orange juice. She knew something was troubling him but
+could not get out of him what it was. Jerry shut a door of
+communication between them. He found it lonely, having to be on his
+guard against blurting out his secret.
+
+At a little after seven on Monday evening, the whole Martin family
+piled in the car to go to the P. T. A. meeting. It was unusual for the
+children to go to a P. T. A. but not for Mr. and Mrs. Martin. Jerry
+and Cathy insisted that their parents go to the meetings, for a count
+was made and the class represented by the most parents got an award.
+Now that Andy was in kindergarten both parents stood up when the count
+was for Miss Prouty's room. And Mr. and Mrs. Martin stood up to be
+counted twice for the sixth grade.
+
+All the Martins but Andy took seats near the front of the auditorium.
+He had to go immediately behind scenes on the stage, since the play he
+was to be in was to come first on the program. That was in order to
+allow the parents of the kindergartners to take them home early if
+they so wished.
+
+Andy had looked a bit pale when he left his family.
+
+"I hope he's not so excited he'll throw up," Cathy said worriedly. "He
+looks pretty scared."
+
+"Scared? Andy scared? Of course he's not scared," said Jerry stoutly,
+though he knew very well that Andy really was scared and was only
+defending him.
+
+"Anyway, he knows his piece," said Cathy. "He said it over to me three
+times before dinner and didn't make a mistake."
+
+Before the curtain went up, Miss Kurtz, the principal, made a short
+speech about giving parents an opportunity to share in the school
+activities of their children. She spoke about the importance of
+creativity, a long word Jerry did not quite understand, but thought
+meant making up things. Then the curtain rose and there was the bears'
+house. Only it didn't have any upstairs. Goldilocks wasn't there yet
+but the porridge was on the table in a big, a medium, and a tiny bowl.
+And here came Andy, walking stiffly to the front of the stage. He
+looked very small.
+
+Jerry saw that his father and mother looked anxious, as anxious as
+Jerry felt. "Come on, Andy. Say it and get it over with," Jerry
+muttered.
+
+"Sh-sh," said Cathy.
+
+The audience looked at Andy and Andy looked at them. Seconds passed.
+Andy did not utter a word.
+
+From behind scenes Miss Prouty prompted him.
+
+"We welcome you, dear parents," she said in a voice barely audible to
+the audience.
+
+Andy's lips did not move. His face looked frozen in fright. He just
+stood there.
+
+Miss Prouty prompted him again. Still Andy did not open his mouth.
+Some boy near the back of the hall clapped. That sound seemed to wake
+Andy from his trance of fear. He raised his head and gave the audience
+a large, beaming smile. Then Andy spoke his piece.
+
+    Gene, Gene--had a machine.
+    Joe, Joe--made it go.
+    Frank, Frank--turned the crank.
+    His mother came out and gave him a spank
+    And threw him over a sandbank.
+
+Andy spoke up nice and loud and then made a bow. Apparently he did not
+realize that he had spoken the wrong piece.
+
+The auditorium suddenly rocked with laughter. Miss Prouty shooed Andy
+off the stage and apologized for him. Then she spoke the "Dear
+parents" poem herself.
+
+Cathy just had time to whisper angrily to Jerry, "It's all your
+fault--you taught him that awful rhyme," before Andy came to sit with
+his family. He did not seem at all upset and apparently enjoyed the
+program, though he yawned a few times before it was over.
+
+Everybody said it had been a good program. In the car going home, Mr.
+Martin said he could hear Cathy's voice above the other girls', sweet
+as a bird. And Mrs. Martin said that Jerry had rung his bells exactly
+on time and very nicely. They carefully avoided mentioning anything
+about Andy's piece.
+
+They were just getting out of the car when Andy broke into loud wails
+of extreme sorrow.
+
+"I said the wrong piece," he sobbed. "I said the wrong piece and
+everybody laughed at me."
+
+"Never you mind, son. Folks enjoy a good laugh," said Mr. Martin.
+
+"There, there!" Andy's mother soothed him. "We all make mistakes. He's
+getting a delayed reaction," she told the others. "And it's long past
+his bedtime."
+
+Jerry really felt sorry for Andy. "Tell you what, Andy, I promise I'll
+take you to the zoo next Saturday. You'll like that, won't you?"
+
+"I don't want to see the loud animals. I want to go see the quiet
+ones," said Andy, sniffing though his sobs had ceased.
+
+"Okay, I'll take you to the Museum of Natural History," agreed Jerry,
+understanding that by "loud" Andy meant alive and by "quiet" he meant
+stuffed animals.
+
+"Ned Brooks hollered so loud my ears hurt. He sounded like this.
+'Who's been eating _my_ porridge?'" Andy bellowed the words so loud
+that his mother put her hands over her ears.
+
+"Sometimes I think I would prefer quiet children," she said.
+
+Andy began speaking for Baby Bear, his voice tiny. He was in high
+spirits again. Jerry wished that all his fret and worry about the
+charge account and getting change could disappear as easily as Andy's
+sorrow. During the P. T. A. meeting Jerry had pushed his worries to
+the background of his thoughts. Now he found them right up front
+again. The next time his mother sent him to the store, where was he to
+go to get change now that George the barber had failed him?
+
+The family drank hot chocolate and ate cookies in the kitchen before
+going to bed. The half-melted marshmallows on top gave Andy a white
+mustache before his mother wiped his face with a napkin. He got in her
+lap and snuggled against her while she sipped her chocolate. When you
+were little like Andy you were easily forgiven for almost anything,
+Jerry thought, his conscience troubled about the charge account.
+
+Jerry was finishing his second cup of hot chocolate when an easy
+solution to the change problem dawned on him. He had made several
+trips to the store this week and each time put away Mr. Bartlett's
+money in bills and small change. There must be money enough up attic
+in that white shoe to change a five and probably a ten. Yes, Jerry was
+sure he could change a ten. "I can make my own change," he thought
+happily. And suddenly the charge account seemed a good scheme again.
+
+"You look mighty pleased with yourself, Jerry," said his mother.
+
+"I just thought of something."
+
+"What?" asked Cathy.
+
+"I'll tell you sometime," Jerry promised.
+
+"Why does Jerry have to act so darned mysterious lately?" Cathy
+complained to her mother.
+
+"A boy has a right to keep a few things to himself," said Mrs. Martin.
+
+Jerry was grateful to his mother for taking his part. "When I get that
+candy from Bartlett's," he thought, "I won't forget that I've promised
+the first piece to Andy. But my mother will get the next piece."
+
+Jerry thought of his mother reaching in the box for a pink mint and
+smiled.
+
+"You're up to something. I can tell it by the way you look," remarked
+Cathy.
+
+He would have to be on his guard against Cathy, Jerry realized. Up
+till now he had found it almost impossible to keep a secret from his
+twin sister.
+
+"Want me to wipe away your tears?" he jibed. It seemed mean to say
+something on purpose to make Cathy mad but that would take her mind
+off being curious.
+
+
+
+
+4
+
+No Safe Hiding Place
+
+
+The next week was not as trying to Jerry as the week before, now that
+he was able to make change up attic. Yet it grew increasingly
+difficult to dodge Cathy. Time after time she caught up with him
+either coming up or going down the attic stairs.
+
+"What are you doing up attic?" she kept asking.
+
+"Nothing," he would say. Or, "Don't you wish you knew?" He even told
+her that she would know all there was to know about it in less than a
+month, that is, if there were anything to know. This last statement
+was the truth, though Cathy did not believe him. She kept hounding
+him.
+
+On Saturday, though it was a good day for baseball, Jerry remembered
+his promise to take Andy to see the "quiet" animals. Since their
+mother did not have time to drive them to town, they took a bus. It
+was a short walk from the bus stop to the Museum of Natural History,
+one of the buildings of the Smithsonian Institution, but Jerry knew
+the way.
+
+Although the Smithsonian had just opened, there were already two big
+buses unloading at the front door. _East Liverpool_, the signs on the
+buses said. That was in Ohio, Jerry told his small brother. And the
+big boys and girls getting out of the buses were doubtless members of
+a high school graduating class on a tour of Washington.
+
+"People come from all over the United States to see Washington,
+especially this time of year when the cherry blossoms are out," said
+Jerry. "Guess they wish they were like us and lived here." It suddenly
+seemed pretty nice to Jerry to live in a city so important that it was
+visited by people from all parts of the country.
+
+"I'd rather live out West with the cowboys," said Andy. He never would
+believe that ever so many people out West were not cowboys or Indians.
+
+Before going to see the stuffed animals Andy wanted to take a look at
+his favorite dinosaur. There were other dinosaurs in the exhibit but
+Andy always devoted himself to the one nearest the entrance. "Dip," he
+called the enormous skeleton, though its full name was _Diplodocus_.
+Jerry was interested in reading that the bones of this dinosaur had
+been found out in Utah and that it was seventy feet long and twelve
+feet high. Andy did not care about details.
+
+"Good old Dip!" said Andy, and gazed at his bony friend with great
+satisfaction.
+
+The boys lingered a long time looking at the "quiet" animals. Andy
+wished that he could have one of the two bear cubs to take home with
+him, now that he was too old to play with Teddy bears. He also
+thought it would be fun to learn to ride a tame buffalo.
+
+"You can't tame a buffalo," said Jerry.
+
+"_I_ could," said Andy with complete confidence. "Now I want to see
+the Indians."
+
+The boys looked at displays of Indians doing a snake dance, Indians
+weaving baskets, grinding corn, weaving rugs, playing games--or just
+standing, being Indians.
+
+"Where did they find so many Indians to stuff?" asked Andy.
+
+Jerry barely stopped himself from giving a loud ha-ha. He decided not
+to laugh at his little brother. After seeing so many stuffed animals
+it was a natural thing for Andy to think the Indians were also
+stuffed. They certainly looked real.
+
+"They don't stuff people," Jerry explained kindly. "The Indians are
+sort of statues, only some of them have more clothes on."
+
+Andy seemed a bit disappointed that they were not real Indians.
+
+After a quick trip upstairs to see an enormous whale, Jerry and Andy
+were through with the museum. Having had nothing to eat since
+breakfast, they were naturally half-starved, so, although it was now
+only eleven-thirty, they decided to have lunch. Their mother had given
+them lunch money. There was no lunchroom near the museum. They had to
+walk way up to Pennsylvania Avenue before they found a cafeteria.
+Then they had a satisfying lunch of hamburgers, milk, lemon pie, and
+chocolate layer cake.
+
+Being downtown gave both boys a sort of holiday feeling and they were
+in no hurry to go home. For Jerry it was a reprieve from his worry
+about the charge account, which by now had become a burden. Once
+having picked it up, he had to go on carrying it. Here in town with
+Andy, the weight seemed less heavy.
+
+"While we're so near, we may as well go take a look at the cherry
+blossoms," suggested Jerry.
+
+Andy did not much care about flowers he was not allowed to pick but he
+let himself be persuaded. On their way to the Tidal Basin, where the
+cherry blossoms were, they were not far from the Washington Monument,
+with its circle of flags blowing in the breeze. Andy teased to go up
+in the Monument but Jerry said there were too many people waiting in
+line.
+
+"We'll do it some other time," he promised.
+
+It pleased Andy that he was doing something with Jerry again. He took
+big steps to match Jerry's.
+
+Near the Tidal Basin there were people taking pictures of each other
+under the flowering trees. Along the path close to the water, men,
+women, and young people were walking. There, the cherry trees bent
+over the basin to see themselves reflected in the quiet depths.
+
+Andy sniffed the air. "Smells nice," he said.
+
+Jerry could understand why so many people came to Washington to see
+the cherry blossoms. "They're really something," he said.
+
+"The pinky trees look like strawberry ice cream cones," said Andy,
+which for him was high praise. Strawberry was his favorite ice cream.
+
+It was nearly four before Jerry and Andy got home. The house next door
+to theirs had been vacant so long that they were surprised to see a
+moving van in front of it.
+
+"Well, what do you know? Somebody must have bought the house. Wonder
+what they'll be like," mused Jerry.
+
+They stood and watched the movers take in a long green sofa, a table,
+and several cartons.
+
+"I want something to eat," said Andy.
+
+So did Jerry. It was a long time since lunch. "What can we have to
+eat?" he called to his mother just as soon as he was in the back door.
+He and Andy went looking for their mother and found her sitting by a
+window in the living room, which overlooked the house next door. She
+was watching the moving.
+
+"We saw all the quiet animals and Dip and the pretend Indians," Andy
+informed his mother. "I'm hungry."
+
+"You can have cookies and a glass of milk but don't touch the cake.
+That's for dessert tonight."
+
+"Where's Cathy?" Jerry thought to ask.
+
+"Seems as if she said something about looking for something up attic,"
+said Mrs. Martin.
+
+Jerry forgot his hunger. It seemed to him a sneaky thing for Cathy to
+do, to go searching the attic while he was out of the house. Had she
+found Mr. Bartlett's money? If she had she would have been downstairs
+with it. But any second she might find it. Jerry rushed for the
+stairs.
+
+Breathless, he arrived at the top of the second flight.
+
+The attic was unfinished--low under the two gables. Against one of the
+high walls hung a row of garment bags. Mr. Bartlett's money was in the
+third one. Jerry tried to keep from looking at it. Cathy was smart
+enough to watch where he was looking. She was busy tossing stuff out
+of the bottom drawer of an old chest of drawers.
+
+"What do you think you're doing?" Jerry asked her.
+
+"Mummy's going to house-clean up here Monday. I'm helping by clearing
+out drawers."
+
+"You mean you're snooping around to see what you can find."
+
+Cathy stopped pawing in the drawer. "So you _are_ hiding something up
+here. I knew it. I knew it."
+
+Too late Jerry realized he had said too much. He had made Cathy more
+suspicious of him than ever.
+
+Cathy picked the stuff up off the floor--it was mostly cloth saved for
+mending and for rags--and crammed it in the drawer, shutting it
+crookedly. She blinked her blue eyes at Jerry. "Tell me what you're
+hiding up here. Cross my heart I won't tell on you."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It irritated Jerry to have Cathy blink her eyes at him.
+
+"Whatever gave you the idea I was hiding anything up here or
+anywhere?"
+
+"I'd tell you if I had something to hide."
+
+"Yeah! You would not."
+
+"I would, too. You're mean. You're the meanest boy I ever knew."
+
+"I'd a darn sight rather be mean than snoopy. You're just a sneaky
+snooper, that's what you are."
+
+"I hate you."
+
+"See if I care."
+
+Cathy's eyes blazed with blue fire. Then Jerry was surprised to see
+them fill with tears. She got to her feet and rushed toward the
+stairs.
+
+"Want me to wipe away your tears?" called Jerry, as she clattered down
+the stairs. The instant the words were out, he was a little ashamed of
+them. He had not meant to make her cry. Why did she have to cry so
+easy? She hadn't used to.
+
+Jerry couldn't figure out what had gotten into Cathy lately. All this
+caring about how she looked. All this fussing about clothes. And the
+way she blinked her eyes at boys. It was enough to make a person sick.
+Less than a year ago he had heard Cathy say that girls who used powder
+and lipstick were dopes. Now she herself was carrying a lipstick in
+her handbag. Jerry guessed she had not sunk so low she used eye makeup
+but he wouldn't put it past her almost any time. Not long ago he and
+Cathy had liked to do the same things, liked the same things. Now they
+didn't even agree about movies. Cathy actually didn't mind love in a
+picture. She even liked pictures in which the hero kissed a girl, and
+Jerry could hardly bear to see a cowboy kiss a horse. Jerry missed the
+Cathy he used to know. The way she was now made him mad.
+
+One thing was sure. The attic was no longer a safe place for Mr.
+Bartlett's money. Not with Cathy snooping around, for she was a good
+finder. Jerry went to the garment bag, got the money out of the white
+shoe--my but there was getting to be a lot--and put the bills in one
+pants pocket and crammed the silver into another. He would have to
+find another hiding place. But where?
+
+Jerry went downstairs. Cathy had joined her mother and Andy at the
+window. They were watching the movers.
+
+"Usually you can get an idea about what people are like by their
+furniture," Jerry heard his mother say, "but I never saw such a
+conglomeration go into any house. Our new neighbor's name is Bullfinch
+and he's a retired college professor. His having a lot of books I can
+understand but why a jungle gym? He doesn't have any children. There
+are just he and his wife."
+
+Jerry would have avoided being near the family until he had found a
+new hiding place for Mr. Bartlett's money if Cathy had not exclaimed,
+"Look at that! Assorted sizes of cages."
+
+Jerry had to come and look, too, then. He saw one of the movers going
+in the house next door with a small gilded cage in one hand and a
+picture frame in the other. After him came the other moving man with a
+cage so large it was all he could carry.
+
+"The smaller one could be for a bird but what on earth could the big
+one be for?" Mrs. Martin was puzzled.
+
+"Maybe he has a chimp for a pet," Jerry contributed.
+
+"Heaven forbid!" gasped his mother.
+
+"But chimps are wonderful pets. Remember reading about that chimp that
+does finger painting? Her owner sells the pictures. Actually gets real
+money for them. That's more than old Andy gets for _his_ finger
+painting," said Jerry.
+
+"Not if I wanted to," said Andy.
+
+Several large oil paintings were carried into the house next door, but
+they were too far away for Jerry to judge if they had been painted by
+a chimp. He guessed not. Pictures painted by chimps weren't usually
+put in heavy gold frames. In went a tall grandfather clock, a
+full-length mirror with a gold eagle on top, an immense old-fashioned
+roll-top desk.
+
+"I never saw such a mixture of good antiques and trash," said Mrs.
+Martin.
+
+"Say," said Jerry, "if Mr. Bullfinch does have a chimp for a pet,
+maybe Andy and I can teach him finger painting. Then if we sold the
+pictures Mr. Bullfinch would give us part of the money."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Cathy made a noise that showed what she thought of that idea.
+
+"You and your schemes!" said Mrs. Martin. She turned away from the
+window and smiled at Jerry. Then one of those especially noticing
+looks came over her face. "What on earth do you have in your pants
+pocket that drags it down? You shouldn't stuff heavy things in your
+pockets. You'll tear them and they're hard to mend."
+
+The next thing would be to ask him to take out whatever was weighing
+down his pocket. Jerry could sense it coming. "I just thought of
+something," he cried, and rushed from the living room. A few seconds
+later the back door slammed behind him. He had made it safely
+outdoors.
+
+"Whew, that was a narrow escape!" he thought. But he felt Mr.
+Bartlett's money as not only a heavy weight in his pocket but on his
+mind. "I won't dare take it back in the house, with Cathy sniffing all
+over the place. Even if she wasn't, the money wouldn't be safe up
+attic, not after my mother gets to house-cleaning up there. She
+doesn't miss a thing. And the cellar would be no good. My father is
+always hunting around down there for screws and paint and stuff he's
+put away and can't remember where. But what the heck am I going to do
+with Mr. Bartlett's money now?"
+
+
+
+
+5
+
+New Neighbors
+
+
+Jerry thought of burying Mr. Bartlett's money somewhere in the yard.
+He gave up that idea when he considered the complication of digging it
+up every time he came back from the store and had to make change.
+Besides, this time of year his mother was likely to be planting
+flowers all over the place.
+
+Jerry decided he might as well watch the moving in next door while he
+was trying to think of a safe hiding place for Mr. Bartlett's money.
+Better keep out of sight from the front window of his house, though.
+Jerry climbed the picket fence that separated his yard from Mr.
+Bullfinch's. Then, crouching low, he ran from bush to bush and took
+his stand in front of a weigela bush that screened him from being seen
+by his family.
+
+The movers were big, brawny men. Jerry saw them lift a huge wardrobe
+as if it were light as a feather. Nearly as light, anyway. As they
+took it in the house, a man came out. He was tall and thin and
+slightly stooped, with a thatch of silver-gray hair. Must be Mr.
+Bullfinch, Jerry thought, and wondered if he shouldn't leave before
+being asked to. Jerry had learned that you never can tell about
+people wanting you or not wanting you in their yards.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch saw Jerry and walked toward him. He smiled with his
+whole face, especially his eyes, and Jerry smiled back a bit shyly. "I
+like to watch people moving in," Jerry said.
+
+"So do I except when I'm the one being moved. Live around here, do
+you? Seems a pleasant neighborhood."
+
+"Next door. It _is_ a nice neighborhood. A few cranky people on this
+street but not many. Say, what a whopper of a chair!"
+
+The movers had taken an enormous brown leather chair out of the van
+and were taking it in the front door.
+
+"I have to tell them where I want it put. Come on in," Mr. Bullfinch
+invited Jerry.
+
+Jerry always enjoyed going in a strange house. He tagged after Mr.
+Bullfinch as he directed the movers to deposit the big chair in front
+of the fireplace in the den.
+
+"Some chair! Is it for you to sit in?" asked Jerry.
+
+"It's a remarkable chair. It does tricks. Runs by electricity," said
+Mr. Bullfinch, taking an electric cord from the seat and unwinding it.
+He looked around and found an outlet and put in the plug. "Want to try
+it out?" he asked Jerry. "Sit down in the chair and press the button
+on the right arm and see what happens."
+
+Jerry was not at all sure he wanted to try out the tricks of the
+chair. "I don't know if I have time right now," he said. Mr. Bullfinch
+did not look like the sort of man who would install an electric
+chair, the kind they have in penitentiaries, in his house and begin to
+execute his neighbors the first day he moved in. Still, better be safe
+than sorry, Jerry reasoned.
+
+"I'll show you how it works," said Mr. Bullfinch, sitting down in the
+chair. He pressed a button to the right, and the back of the chair
+went down and the part that hung down in front came up, making what
+looked like a narrow cot.
+
+"That's not half of it," said Mr. Bullfinch, punching another button.
+
+Jerry gasped as the right arm of the chair swung over and began to rub
+Mr. Bullfinch's stomach while the whole contraption jerked up and
+down.
+
+"Takes plenty of power to do that," said Mr. Bullfinch from his
+reclining position. "I shudder to think of what my electric bill will
+be if I use it often." He laughed heartily. "It tickles." Then he
+pushed the button that stopped the jerking and massaging and the one
+that made the chair regain its chair-like appearance. And there was
+Mr. Bullfinch sitting up again, looking just the same except that his
+hair was a little rumpled.
+
+"It's supposed to reduce you if you're too fat and build you up if
+you're too thin. It's an exerciser and health builder. Trade name for
+it is the Excello. Believe I'll call it the Bumper. It does thump and
+bump a bit, you know. Now do you want to try it?"
+
+It was nice of Mr. Bullfinch to forget that Jerry had just said he
+didn't have time to try it out. Jerry warmed to his new neighbor. So
+now he sat in the big chair and pushed the buttons, roaring with
+laughter when the right arm of the chair began to massage his stomach.
+
+"You have hardly enough middle to rub," said Mr. Bullfinch. He didn't
+hurry Jerry. He let him try out the chair for as long as he wanted to.
+
+When Jerry got up out of the chair the paper bag containing all of Mr.
+Bartlett's change fell from his pocket. The bag broke and the money
+rolled in all directions.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch helped Jerry pick up the money. Not having another paper
+bag at hand, Mr. Bullfinch gave Jerry a worn tobacco pouch to put the
+money in. He did not ask why Jerry happened to be carrying so much
+money in his pocket.
+
+"Ever go to auctions?" asked Mr. Bullfinch, as Jerry crammed the
+tobacco pouch in his pants pocket. The pocket tore slightly. His
+mother would be after him for that, Jerry thought worriedly.
+
+"Double darn!" said Jerry. "I'm not talking to you--I'm just sorry I
+tore my pocket," Jerry said to Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+"Well, 'double darn' seems an appropriate remark for a torn pocket,"
+said Mr. Bullfinch. "Did you say you'd ever been to an auction?"
+
+Jerry hadn't and said so.
+
+"Auctions are my hobby," said Mr. Bullfinch. "People need to have a
+hobby when they retire and mine is auctions. Greatest sport I know
+of. Course you're likely to pick up a few things you haven't any
+immediate need for but at least you get something for your money. Mrs.
+Bullfinch scolds me sometimes for what I buy but I can't resist the
+fun of bidding. Up to a point, that is. I set myself a limit on what
+I'll spend at an auction. Guess I do get stuck with some strange
+objects once in a while. You should have seen Mrs. Bullfinch's face
+when I brought home a job lot of empty cages."
+
+"Don't you have pets to put in any of them?" Jerry's face showed his
+disappointment. If not a chimp he had hoped for a parrot or at least a
+canary.
+
+"Not a one," said Mr. Bullfinch. "Guess I'll have to wait till they
+auction off some of the animals in the Washington zoo."
+
+"They'll never do that."
+
+"I was only joking. Do you have any pets?"
+
+"Just a cat named Bibsy because she has a white front. Like a bib, you
+know."
+
+"Well, if I see a mouse around here I hope you'll lend me Bibsy."
+
+"I will." Jerry sensed that Mr. Bullfinch thought it was time for him
+to be leaving. And Jerry was about to when a woman screamed loud as a
+fire siren.
+
+"My wife!" cried Mr. Bullfinch and rushed toward the back of the
+house, Jerry following him.
+
+Out in the kitchen, standing on a high stool, was Mrs. Bullfinch.
+She was a small plump woman wearing a pink apron. She looked
+terrified.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"A spider!" she gasped. "I had a broom and was making sure there were
+no spiders around the ceiling when the biggest spider I've ever seen
+in my life ran down the broom handle. It ran right across my arm." She
+shuddered till the stool she was standing on shook. "I brushed it off.
+It was horrible. I didn't see where it went but it's in this room
+somewhere. And I won't get off this stool until it's found and
+killed."
+
+"Better get down, dear," said her husband. "There are two of us here
+to protect you." He looked around the room for the spider, opening
+cupboard doors to see if it had run in a cupboard. "It's taken off for
+parts unknown by this time," he said soothingly. "Come on, get down.
+You'll want to tell the movers where to put the piano."
+
+"It's still in this room. I know it. If I get down it might run up my
+leg. Oh, dear! Oh, dear!"
+
+She was pretty heavy for that stool, Jerry thought, expecting one of
+its legs to crack any minute. She's like Little Miss Muffett, afraid
+of spiders--only she climbed a stool instead of being frightened away.
+He glanced down at the broom on the floor where Mrs. Bullfinch had
+thrown it. A large hairy spider was just crawling out of the
+broomstraws.
+
+Jerry had never moved more quickly. Three steps and he had brought his
+foot down hard. Jerry did not enjoy killing even a spider but this
+time it seemed necessary, though he carefully refrained from looking
+at the dead insect.
+
+"Good boy!" said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+Mrs. Bullfinch, with a little help from her husband, got down from the
+stool. She thanked Jerry earnestly and effusively.
+
+"I'll not forget this. Someday I hope to do something for you. You
+don't know how obliged to you I am. That spider might have killed me."
+
+Jerry did not think that the spider had been the kind that would have
+a bite that killed. Being thought a hero was pleasant, however. "Think
+nothing of it," he said, looking more cocky than modest in spite of
+his words.
+
+"Where you want the pianer?" shouted one of the movers, and Mrs.
+Bullfinch bustled off to the living room.
+
+There did not seem to be any reason for Jerry to stay any longer. He
+had a feeling that Mr. Bullfinch, though still very polite, had things
+he wanted to see to. So Jerry murmured something about having to get
+home and Mr. Bullfinch told him again that he was indebted to him for
+killing the spider.
+
+"I never knew anybody as afraid of spiders as Mrs. Bullfinch," he
+said. "Everybody has something he's afraid of, I guess. With Mrs.
+Bullfinch it's spiders."
+
+Jerry didn't know if he should leave by the back or the front door but
+Mr. Bullfinch led the way to the front. Jerry admired the grandfather
+clock in the front hall. On the glass above its face there was a
+painted globe in pale green and yellow. Jerry had almost reached the
+front door when the clock struck five--long, solemn sounds of great
+dignity.
+
+"That sure is a big clock," said Jerry.
+
+"I didn't buy that at an auction, it was in the family," said Mr.
+Bullfinch. "When I was a little boy I once hid inside when we were
+playing hide and seek. That was the time I stopped the clock," he
+chuckled.
+
+Suddenly Jerry thought of a safe hiding place for Mr. Bartlett's
+money. What Mr. Bullfinch had said about hiding in the clock had given
+him the idea.
+
+"Say," he said with barely controlled excitement, "would you mind if I
+kept the money I have on me in your clock?"
+
+Mr. Bartlett gave Jerry a long appraising look. Then his eyes lit up
+in one of his nice smiles. "Not at all. Not at all," he said
+cordially.
+
+"I may need to come and get some out or put some in now and then. If
+that would not be making too much trouble."
+
+"Not at all. Not at all. Come any time you like. I've never run a bank
+before. New experience for me."
+
+Jerry could tell that Mr. Bullfinch was almost making fun of him.
+Never mind, he was letting him keep Mr. Bartlett's money in the bottom
+of the clock. And how grateful Jerry was to Mr. Bullfinch for not
+asking any embarrassing questions about the money! Even before he had
+shut the clock door on Mr. Bartlett's money and had started for home,
+Jerry had decided that he liked his new neighbor, Mr. Bullfinch. He
+liked him a lot.
+
+
+
+
+6
+
+"The Stars and Stripes Forever"
+
+
+Jerry found it a relief not to have to worry about Cathy's snooping,
+now that he was keeping Mr. Bartlett's money next door in the
+grandfather clock. The only trouble was that stopping off at the
+Bullfinches' on his way home often took considerable time. If Mr.
+Bullfinch had been to an auction--and besides attending a weekly
+auction in town he now and then went to one in nearby Maryland or
+Virginia--Jerry always had to be shown what treasure Mr. Bullfinch had
+acquired. One day it was a worn Oriental rug, another, an incomplete
+set of fine English porcelain. The prize purchase as far as Jerry was
+concerned was an old-fashioned phonograph with a horn like a big blue
+morning glory flower. Jerry's father had a hi-fi which made records
+sound as if the musicians were right in the same room with you, but
+Jerry enjoyed the faintly mechanical sound that accompanied music
+played on the old phonograph. It was like preferring canned peaches to
+fresh ones. Nice for a change anyway.
+
+Jerry liked to stay at the Bullfinches' long enough to listen to a
+record or two. He was not so happy about being delayed by Mrs.
+Bullfinch. She was a great talker. She told Jerry very much more than
+he cared to know about her family, Mr. Bullfinch's family, and every
+college town they had lived in while Mr. Bullfinch was teaching. He
+had, it seemed, been a Latin teacher until the demand for Latin had
+grown so small that he had thought best to switch to teaching English.
+
+"It was teaching Freshman English that turned his hair gray," said
+Mrs. Bullfinch. "Having so many students come to college without
+knowing how to write a grammatical sentence was a great sorrow to
+him."
+
+Jerry's opinion was that Mr. Bullfinch's hair had turned gray from old
+age. Mrs. Bullfinch's hair was gray, too, and she hadn't taught
+Freshman English. Jerry would have asked her what had turned her hair
+gray if he had not been afraid it would have been too long a story.
+Not that Jerry disliked Mrs. Bullfinch even though she was
+long-winded. She was kind and she made good cookies. Jerry usually
+went home from the Bullfinch house munching an oatmeal cookie.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"You took long enough getting back from the store to have gone and
+come back twice," scolded Jerry's mother an afternoon when he had
+stopped to play "The Stars and Stripes Forever" on Mr. Bullfinch's
+phonograph on his way home from the store. It was Jerry's favorite
+record, with John Philip Sousa leading his own band. One reason
+Jerry liked this particular march was because he had shaken bells to
+it in the rhythm band at school. Next summer Jerry was going to take
+lessons playing a horn. He had already picked out the instrument he
+wanted to learn to play, a giant tuba in Kitt's music store downtown.
+By fall he would be ready to play in the junior high band.
+
+Jerry was thinking of playing in a band and was not paying much
+attention to his mother's scolding, when she said something that
+shocked him into alertness.
+
+"Next time I want something from the store in a hurry, I'll send
+Cathy," she said.
+
+"Honest, next time I'll come home like the wind," Jerry promised. It
+wouldn't do at all to have Cathy go to the store. Mr. Bartlett knew
+her. He might ask her if she wanted the groceries charged before she
+got the money out to pay for them. And good-by then to Jerry's secret
+charge account. "You said running errands was my chore," he reminded
+his mother. "You haven't heard me gripe about having to go to the
+store, have you?"
+
+"Not recently," his mother acknowledged. "It's something to have you
+so willing. But why can't you come right home with the groceries? Now
+I was going to make Bavarian cream for dessert tonight but you're too
+late getting back with the whipping cream."
+
+"I'm sorry." Jerry really was. He was very fond of Bavarian cream.
+
+"Let's see. I have a box of gingerbread mix. And I can make applesauce
+while it's baking."
+
+"That will be swell," said Jerry.
+
+"Go find Cathy, will you, Jerry? I wouldn't be surprised if you found
+her somewhere with her nose in a book. Tell her to come and peel the
+apples for me."
+
+Jerry was glad to get away from his mother just then. It was not hard
+to find Cathy. She was on the window seat in the living room. Jerry
+could see the book jacket of the book she was reading. It was _Going
+Steady_ and had a picture of a boy and a girl gazing fondly at each
+other while skating. Cathy was not old enough to go steady--Jerry had
+heard his mother say so--and it made Jerry sick that his twin sister
+liked to read all that guff about having dates with boys and things
+like that. Now a horse story, or a dog story--they were good reading.
+So were books about rockets, planets, dinosaurs, Abraham Lincoln, and
+ever so many other interesting subjects. Cathy liked to read good
+books like that, too, Jerry had to acknowledge, but she also had
+developed an interest in books that had falling in love in them, an
+interest Jerry not only did not share but despised.
+
+"Lift your big blue eyes from that lousy book," said Jerry in a
+mocking voice. "Mummy wants you to come out in the kitchen and peel
+apples."
+
+Cathy put down her book reluctantly. Her eyes were dreamy. She sighed.
+"I suppose it's a girl's duty to help her mother," she said.
+
+She got to her feet and glided out of the room, walking as nearly as
+she could like a movie star whose latest picture she had seen at the
+neighborhood theater the previous Saturday afternoon.
+
+Jerry picked up _Going Steady_ and examined the cover more closely. He
+threw it down. "Cathy must have rocks in her head to like a book like
+that," he thought.
+
+The clock on the living room mantel struck the half hour. Five-thirty.
+Jerry had an hour to kill before time for dinner. What was there to
+do? A wave of irritation against Cathy swept over him. She ought to be
+sharing all this work and worry about the charge account. A year ago
+he could have confided in her safely. She could have been counted on
+both to keep the secret and to help him. They always stuck together,
+he and Cathy, until she had changed. Now half the time she acted as if
+she were against him. Look at the way she had snooped around the attic
+like a bum detective. If she had found the money she would have very
+likely said it was her duty to tell on him. Jerry almost never could
+know in advance how she was going to act. Almost he did not like her
+any more.
+
+Jerry went down to the recreation room and turned on the television.
+
+"Send two box tops and twenty-five cents and you will receive--"
+
+"Nuts!" cried Jerry, turning it off. He didn't want to listen to kid
+stuff. It seemed long ago that he had sent box tops and money away
+for secret rings and pasteboard telescopes.
+
+He went to the bookshelves and took down _Black Beauty_. He had read
+it before but he didn't mind reading it again. He liked the book
+because he felt it showed just how a horse thought. He read until he
+was called to dinner.
+
+Two days later Jerry ran into real trouble. It was nearly six and he
+had just come home from playing ball, when his mother said he had
+barely time to run to the store for a pound of cheddar cheese before
+the store closed. And the smallest she had was a five-dollar bill.
+Jerry took his bike and determined to get back in a hurry. No stopping
+to listen to a record this time, even if Mr. Bullfinch had bought some
+new old ones Jerry would like to hear.
+
+Not more than ten minutes after leaving the house, Jerry was ringing
+the Bullfinch doorbell. He would rush in, get his change, and be home
+in a jiffy. But nobody answered the bell. Jerry rang again, with his
+finger pressed on the bell hard. He could hear the bell ring inside.
+Still nobody came to the door.
+
+"But they're always home this time of day," Jerry worried. He decided
+it was no use to keep on ringing the bell. "They should have told me
+they weren't going to be home," he thought, yet he really knew there
+was no reason why they should. But he had to get in to change his
+five-dollar bill. He just had to.
+
+"They'll probably be here any minute now," Jerry tried to reassure
+himself. "It's past time for Mrs. Bullfinch to be getting dinner." But
+what if the Bullfinches had been invited out to dinner? Jerry groaned
+at the thought. What could he do?
+
+"I have to get in." That was the thought that kept repeating itself in
+his mind, the thought that sent him around the house testing every
+window he could reach to see if he could find one unlocked. "They told
+me to come in any time, didn't they?" Jerry argued with himself.
+
+At last Jerry found a cellar window unlocked. He pushed and it swung
+in over an empty coalbin. The Bullfinches had an oil furnace but Jerry
+could see by the coal dust that there had once been coal in that bin.
+
+"I'll be bound to get my pants dirty but I guess it will brush off."
+
+Jerry was half in and half out of the window before he realized that
+he could not go on with it. He could not make himself break in the
+Bullfinch house. He needed to get in. He kept telling himself that
+probably the Bullfinches would not mind a bit, yet he still couldn't
+bring himself to going in a neighbor's house like a burglar.
+
+"Don't be a sissy. What are you scared of? Nobody's going to find out.
+And if they did. I'm not going to hurt a thing."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It was no use. Jerry could not argue himself into even innocent
+housebreaking. As he was swinging his legs off the windowsill, he
+heard music, familiar music, "The Stars and Stripes Forever." While he
+had been fussing and fretting at the cellar window, the Bullfinches
+must have come home and Mr. Bullfinch had put on the Sousa record.
+
+Jerry carefully pulled the cellar window shut and ran to the front
+door again. Again he pushed the bell. Again he listened. No footsteps
+coming toward the door. And the music had stopped. But Jerry had heard
+it. He knew he had heard it. Somebody must be there. Then why didn't
+somebody come to let him in? Giving up ringing the bell, Jerry
+knocked. He even kicked the door. No response to that either. "If
+they're there they've decided not to let me in," Jerry reasoned.
+
+"But they like me. They wouldn't do a thing like that. I'll go and see
+if their car is in the garage and then I'll know for sure if they're
+home. I might not have heard the car come in while I was on the other
+side of the house."
+
+Jerry hurried out to the garage. The garage door was open. No car. It
+was obvious that the Bullfinches were still not home.
+
+"But I could have sworn I heard somebody inside playing 'The Stars and
+Stripes Forever.'" Jerry wondered if he had imagined he had heard the
+band music.
+
+"Nobody's home," said a small voice. And there was Andy just outside
+the Bullfinch yard.
+
+"Don't you suppose I know it?" barked Jerry.
+
+Andy ran off as a car came up the street and stopped with a screech
+of brakes in front of the Bullfinch house. Here were Mr. and Mrs.
+Bullfinch home at last.
+
+They were sorry to have kept Jerry waiting for them to get home. Mr.
+Bullfinch showed Jerry where he kept an extra key behind the mailbox,
+so if Jerry needed to get in again when they were not home, he could.
+
+"It isn't every boy I would trust," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+Both Mr. and Mrs. Bullfinch had been to an auction in Georgetown. They
+had bought a pair of hand-wrought andirons shaped like little
+lighthouses, but Jerry did not stop to admire them. As soon as he had
+changed the five-dollar bill he was off like a shot.
+
+Mrs. Martin had the electric mixer going but she could scold above the
+noise. "Now you're home with the cheese too late for me to make cheese
+sauce for the broccoli. I'm at the end of my patience. Where on earth
+have you been? Why didn't you come straight home from the store?"
+
+"He stops off on his way home to see the Bullfinches," said Cathy,
+getting ice cubes out of the refrigerator to put in the water pitcher.
+"I've seen him go in."
+
+"Tattletale!" snarled Jerry.
+
+"Just saying where you've seen a person isn't tattling, is it,
+Mother?"
+
+"You shoot off your mouth too much," accused Jerry.
+
+"Well, what do you _do_ over at the Bullfinches'?"
+
+"None of your business."
+
+Mrs. Martin shut off the mixer. "I wish you two could be in the same
+room without starting a cat and dog fight. Go get Andy out of the
+bathroom, Jerry. He came home looking as if he'd been in a coal mine
+and I sent him in to take a shower. Help him get dressed in a hurry.
+Dinner is about ready to dish up."
+
+Jerry was glad his mother had her mind partly on dinner or she might
+have insisted on knowing what he did over at the Bullfinches'. He
+sighed. It was all getting too complicated. He certainly would be
+thankful when the month of the charge account was over.
+
+The Martins were eating dessert--it was lemon pudding with meringue on
+top, one of Jerry's favorite desserts--when the doorbell rang.
+
+"I'll go," said Jerry, pushing back his chair.
+
+It was Mr. Bullfinch at the door. And the way he looked at Jerry made
+him feel all shriveled up inside. Mr. Bullfinch looked taller to Jerry
+than usual. His gray eyes were like steel. He had the tobacco pouch in
+his hand.
+
+"Mrs. Bullfinch and I don't want you to keep this at our house any
+longer," he said coldly. "I'm unpleasantly surprised at you, Jerry. I
+didn't size you up as a boy who would break into a neighbor's house.
+It's not that I mind having you go in. It's the sneaky way you went in
+through the cellar window."
+
+"But I didn't--"
+
+"Oh, yes, you did. There was coal dust on the rug in my den. Though
+that I might not have noticed if you hadn't broken the record."
+
+"What record? I tell you I didn't break any record."
+
+"I would be willing to overlook it if you'd told me when I got home.
+You might have known I would put two and two together. I'm not sure
+it's not my duty to report you to the police. I won't this time, for
+the sake of your parents if nothing more. And you won't find the key
+to the house behind the mailbox. I gave permission to use the key to a
+boy I thought I could trust."
+
+Jerry rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes as Mr. Bullfinch
+went down the steps and the walk. Never had he felt so unjustly
+accused. Nor so helpless about defending himself. Mr. Bullfinch was so
+sure Jerry had been in the house and didn't dare say so because of the
+broken record. Record! Now Jerry was sure he had not been imagining
+hearing music while he had been sitting on the sill of the cellar
+window. Somebody _had_ been in there playing "The Stars and Stripes
+Forever" on the phonograph. But who? And where had he gone to so
+quickly before the Bullfinches got home? It was almost enough to make
+Jerry believe in spirits.
+
+On his way back to the dining room, Jerry slipped the tobacco pouch
+under the cushion of a big chair in the living room. No time for now
+to find a safer hiding place.
+
+"Who was it?" asked Mr. Martin, as Jerry took his place at the table
+again.
+
+"Mr. Bullfinch. He returned something I'd left at his house." Jerry's
+eyes were on his plate.
+
+"What did you leave over there?"
+
+Count on Cathy to want to know all of his business. "Ask me no
+questions and I'll tell you no lies," Jerry told her.
+
+"I can whistle," Andy suddenly boasted. "I can whistle real good. Want
+to hear me?"
+
+Without waiting for the wishes of his family to be expressed, Andy
+pursed up his lips and whistled. He still was not much of a whistler,
+yet from the shrill piping emerged a faint resemblance to a few bars
+of "The Stars and Stripes Forever."
+
+A great light dawned on Jerry. Andy at the scene of the crime. Coal
+dust on Andy. And now the clincher, his whistling "The Stars and
+Stripes Forever." It had been Andy in the Bullfinch house. Jerry was
+as sure of it as of the nose on his face. "While I was out looking in
+the garage he would have just had time to get out of the house," Jerry
+thought. "I'll make him tell. It's not fair for me to be blamed for
+something he did. Mr. Bullfinch won't be hard on Andy. He'll think
+he's too little to know better."
+
+"I guess we won't have any more whistling at the dinner table," Mr.
+Martin reproved Andy gently.
+
+Andy looked as well-scrubbed and innocent as a perfect angel. Or a
+nearly perfect angel, Jerry thought. Jerry remembered how Andy would
+shut up like a clam about something he knew he should not have done.
+
+"He can be like a can of sardines. You can't get a thing out of him
+unless you have a key," thought Jerry. And he wondered how he was
+going to pry the truth out of his little brother.
+
+
+
+
+7
+
+Working on Andy
+
+
+Jerry wanted to shake the truth out of Andy before the little boy's
+bedtime. But Andy followed his mother and Cathy to the kitchen after
+dinner and conversed with them all the time they were doing the dinner
+dishes. He had a long story about how a boy had been so bad that
+morning in kindergarten that the teacher made him sit in a chair all
+the time the others were playing a hopping and singing game.
+
+"I could have hopped the highest. I'm a good hopper. Not a
+grasshopper, just a hopper. Want to see me hop?"
+
+"So it was you who were the bad boy. What did you do that was
+naughty?" asked his mother.
+
+"Nothing. I didn't say it was me. Anyway, Tommy Jenks joggled my arm
+or I wouldn't have thrown a crayon at him. I didn't mean to hit him in
+the eye. Lots of times I throw things and they don't hit anybody."
+
+"And that's the truth," remarked Jerry, who had stalked Andy to the
+kitchen. Andy's confession encouraged Jerry. If he owned up so easy
+about throwing a crayon, it would be a cinch to get him to acknowledge
+that he had been inside the Bullfinch house before dinner. "Come on
+up to my room," Jerry invited him. "I've got something to show you."
+
+But it seemed that Andy didn't want to be shown anything just then.
+Usually Jerry tried to keep Andy out of his room instead of inviting
+him in. "He's not so dumb," thought Jerry.
+
+Andy proved very hard to corner. Jerry could not get him alone until
+Andy was in the bathroom, brushing his teeth before going to bed. Then
+Andy tried to get rid of him.
+
+"It's not polite to come in the bathroom when somebody's here. Mummy
+said so."
+
+"Listen," said Jerry. "You listen to me, Andy Martin."
+
+"What you want?"
+
+"I want you to own up to breaking that record over at the Bullfinch
+house."
+
+"What record?" Andy's voice was slightly muffled by toothpaste.
+
+"You know as well as I do. 'The Stars and Stripes Forever.'"
+
+Andy spit in the sink. There was a trace of toothpaste at the left
+corner of his mouth. His eyes were innocent. A bit puzzled maybe but
+unclouded by guilt. "I can't read the names on records."
+
+"But you were whistling it at dinner."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Andy hung up his toothbrush. He tried to get past Jerry but Jerry
+grabbed him. It was like holding a small wild animal but Jerry held
+on. "Nobody's going to be hard on you, Andy. I _know_ you were in the
+Bullfinch house playing that record."
+
+"Nobody knows where I am but me," said Andy.
+
+"How did you get all that coal dust on you? You got it crawling in the
+window into the Bullfinch coalbin, didn't you?"
+
+"I have a mineral collection that has a piece of coal in it. Some of
+the black must have rubbed off on me. That must have been it. I'm a
+very dirty boy. Every speck of dirt sticks to me. Mummy said so. She
+says I'm as dirty as a pig. Is a pig dirtier than a skunk, Jerry?"
+
+Jerry said he thought that skunks weren't usually dirty.
+
+"Remember that time we were out in the car and Daddy said he smelled
+skunk? Phew! It was an awful smell."
+
+"Andy," called his mother from the foot of the stairs. "You get to
+bed. Double quick now."
+
+"Jerry won't let me."
+
+"Stop bothering your little brother, Jerry. Come on down. I'm sure you
+have homework to do."
+
+Andy slid out of Jerry's hold and ran down the hall. "You can't catch
+me," he yelled.
+
+Jerry didn't try. Sometimes Andy was more slippery than an eel, he
+thought dolefully. Getting him to confess that he had been in the
+Bullfinch house would have to wait till tomorrow.
+
+The next morning Jerry woke up feeling heavy in spirit. He still had
+the secret of the charge account on his mind and now there was the
+added weight of Mr. Bullfinch's disappointment in him. Jerry had not
+realized how much he had valued Mr. Bullfinch's approval until he had
+lost it.
+
+"I'll just have to make Andy tell," thought Jerry, as he dressed in a
+hurry after his mother had called him twice.
+
+When Jerry came downstairs, his father was just leaving for work.
+Jerry heard the front door close. Cathy was alone in the dining room
+eating her cereal. She looked so cheerful Jerry could hardly stand it.
+
+"Don't sit down, you might hurt your head," she greeted him.
+Ridiculous remarks were popular with the sixth grade right now and she
+was trying out one she had heard recently.
+
+"Think that's funny? It stinks."
+
+"I was just trying to be pleasant. Mummy especially asked me to try to
+be pleasant to you even when you were aggravating. And you certainly
+_are_ aggravating."
+
+"Shut up!"
+
+"Well, you needn't take my head off."
+
+"You might be better-looking if I could."
+
+"Jerry! Cathy!" Mrs. Martin came in from the kitchen with a platter of
+scrambled eggs and bacon. "I'm glad your father left before he had to
+hear such bickering. He wouldn't stand for it, and neither will I.
+Either be civil to each other or don't speak."
+
+"Suits me," said Jerry. "I'll be tickled to death if Cathy stops
+ya-ka-ta-yaking."
+
+"He's just awful." Cathy's blue eyes appealed to her mother for
+sympathy.
+
+"Want me to wipe away your tears?" jibed her twin brother.
+
+"Eat your bacon and eggs. I trust and hope you'll both feel better
+when you've had your breakfast," said their mother. "I don't know
+what's gotten into you two lately. Always at each other and you used
+to be as close to each other as the two sides of a pair of shears."
+
+"Bet I always had the sharpest edge," mumbled Jerry.
+
+"That's enough from you, young man."
+
+When his mother spoke in that tone of voice, Jerry thought it best to
+keep still and tend to what he was doing. He took a large mouthful of
+scrambled eggs. They were good scrambled eggs. His mother sure knew
+how to fix them.
+
+Mrs. Martin looked at Andy's vacant chair. "Oh, dear, that child's not
+down yet. He dawdles so getting dressed."
+
+"He's coming," said Jerry, as they heard a thump that was Andy jumping
+down the last two steps of the front stairs.
+
+In came Andy, an imaginary pistol in each hand. "Bang!" he cried,
+shooting his mother. "Bang! Bang! You're all dead. Aren't there any
+pancakes?"
+
+"Come eat your cereal. I'm keeping your eggs and bacon hot for you
+out in the kitchen," said his mother. "Tuck your napkin under your
+chin. I don't want you to spill milk on your clean shirt. You should
+be thankful you have such a good breakfast. Plenty of children would
+be glad to have less."
+
+"I'm not plenty of children. I'm me." Andy looked up and met Jerry's
+accusing gaze with a wide smile. Andy never remembered yesterday's
+mischief. Each day was brand-new to Andy.
+
+"It will be harder than ever to get him to own up to what he did over
+at the Bullfinches'," thought Jerry.
+
+Andy knew the way to school and usually Jerry walked to school with
+boys his own age while Andy poked along alone or with one of his
+fellow kindergartners. But today when Andy had kissed his mother
+good-by and had come out the back door, Jerry was waiting for him.
+
+"I've got to hurry. I don't want to be late," said Andy, whose
+lateness had seldom worried him before.
+
+"We've got loads of time. Now, look here, Andy. I'm in a jam and
+you're the only one who can help me."
+
+Being talked to as his big brother's equal pleased Andy. "What you
+want me to do?"
+
+Jerry described vividly how unjustly Mr. Bullfinch had blamed him for
+getting into his house and breaking the Sousa record. "He's awfully
+down on me now," said Jerry. "Do you think it's fair for me to be
+blamed for something I didn't do?"
+
+"Just tell him somebody else must have done it," suggested Andy.
+
+"I did but he didn't believe me."
+
+"Then he's a bad, bad man."
+
+"It burns me up to be blamed for something I didn't do. You wouldn't
+like to be blamed for breaking a window if Tommy Jenks did it, would
+you, Andy?"
+
+"Tommy and I can't throw a ball hard enough to break a window."
+
+"I give up," cried Jerry. "I might have known you wouldn't lift a
+finger to get me out of trouble. Save your own skin, that's all you
+care about. And I was meaning to give you something nice when I get
+it," said Jerry, thinking of the candy he would receive from
+Bartlett's store.
+
+"What were you going to give me?"
+
+"Never you mind. Whatever it is, you won't get any."
+
+"Please, Jerry."
+
+"Nope."
+
+"I didn't mean to break that old record. It wasn't my fault. It
+slipped right out of my hand," remarked Andy.
+
+Jerry breathed a sigh of relief. Andy's resolution not to tell had
+begun to give. "I'll go right to the door with you if you'll fess up
+to Mr. Bullfinch what you did," he offered.
+
+Andy was not in the mood for an early morning call on Mr. Bullfinch.
+It took a lot of persuasion and the gift of two large rubber bands, an
+old campaign button, and two feet or so of good string before Andy let
+Jerry take him by the hand and lead him to the Bullfinch front door.
+
+"You ring the bell," said Jerry. He knew Andy liked to ring doorbells.
+
+Andy did not care to ring Mr. Bullfinch's bell just then. Jerry
+pressed it hard. He hoped Mr. Bullfinch would answer the bell in a
+hurry before Andy changed his mind about telling.
+
+"I'll tell him I'll help you pay for the record," said Jerry.
+
+"I don't want to pay money for an old broken record. It's no good,"
+said Andy, trying to pull away from Jerry.
+
+Just then Mr. Bullfinch opened the front door. He was wearing a dark
+blue bathrobe with a red plaid collar. He looked sleepy and not at all
+pleased to see his visitors.
+
+"Did you have to come so early?" he inquired.
+
+"It's almost time for school. Andy has something he wants to tell
+you."
+
+"No, I don't," said Andy.
+
+"Come on, Andy, you promised you'd tell."
+
+"I've changed my mind."
+
+"I wish you'd say whatever you came to say and be off. I find small
+boys hard to take before I have a cup of coffee," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+"I'll give you the first nickel I find rolling uphill. Or downhill
+either," Jerry promised Andy. "Go on, tell him." Jerry gave Andy a
+gentle poke in the back.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Andy looked up at Mr. Bullfinch. "You shouldn't leave your cellar
+window unlocked. A real burglar might have gotten in instead of me.
+And that record must have been cracked. I dropped it very easy,
+honest," said Andy in a rush of words. "It wasn't Jerry, it was me,"
+he added.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch stopped looking displeased. "Well," he said, not
+sounding at all cross with Andy, "I must say I admire a young fellow
+who will step right up and confess he's been into a little mischief."
+
+"Little mischief!" thought Jerry. Last night at the door Mr. Bullfinch
+had sounded as if he had considered getting into his house a real
+crime. Still, Jerry was glad Mr. Bullfinch was not being hard on Andy.
+
+"Good-by," said Andy.
+
+"Just a minute," said Mr. Bullfinch. "When something is broken it has
+to be paid for. I think you owe me something for that record, even if
+you think it was cracked."
+
+"I'll help pay for it," offered Jerry, without great enthusiasm.
+
+"I'm saving my money to buy a space helmet," said Andy.
+
+"Let's see," mused Mr. Bullfinch. "How are you boys at mowing lawns?"
+
+"Not bad," said Jerry, not remembering that his mother often remarked
+that it was like pulling teeth to get him to mow their lawn.
+
+"I can't mow but I can rake real good," said Andy.
+
+"Then if you'll come over after school this afternoon and take care of
+my lawn, we'll call it quits," said Mr. Bullfinch. "And I owe you an
+apology, Jerry, for misjudging you. Sorry I had the wrong Martin boy
+by the ear. I hope you'll bring back that little something you've been
+keeping over here."
+
+"I may at that," said Jerry.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch looked at Andy sternly. "It's wrong to go into a house
+when nobody's home. Don't you let me hear of your doing that again."
+
+"I won't," promised Andy, giving Mr. Bullfinch one of his beaming
+smiles that showed his dimple.
+
+"Come on, Andy, we can't stand here all day or we'll be late for
+school. I'll be seeing you," Jerry told Mr. Bullfinch, glad that they
+were friends again.
+
+Andy chattered happily on the way to school. Nothing got Andy down,
+Jerry thought, envying his carefree little brother. He should be
+feeling relieved about getting his guilt off his chest. But Andy had
+not seemed at all downhearted before. "Anyway, I got it out of him,"
+Jerry thought with satisfaction. Yet Jerry was grateful to Andy. He
+had known him to be far more stubborn.
+
+"Only nine more days before I get that candy from Bartlett's," Jerry
+thought. "And when I do, Andy not only gets the first piece; I don't
+care if he takes a whole handful."
+
+Jerry noticed that Andy almost had to run to keep up with him. He
+slowed down. Jerry felt like being very nice to Andy even if it meant
+that they would be late for school.
+
+
+
+
+8
+
+The Auction
+
+
+"School going all right, Jerry?" asked his father.
+
+Jerry was at the dining room table after dinner doing homework. He had
+a list of geography questions and was supposed to write down the
+answers. That meant either looking them up in the book or asking his
+father. Jerry's dad knew a good deal about geography, yet after
+answering a few questions he was likely to say, "How can you expect to
+learn if you don't find out for yourself?" He seemed to be in a good
+humor tonight. Jerry thought he might be good for answers to at least
+three questions of the ten.
+
+"I'm pretty sure I'm not failing anything at school," said Jerry.
+
+"Glad to hear it. I thought you've looked lately as if something were
+worrying you. If your arithmetic is giving you trouble again, maybe I
+can give you a little help."
+
+"Arithmetic's not so hard after you get the hang of it. I got a
+hundred in an arithmetic test day before yesterday."
+
+"Good for you. Keep up the good work. I expect you to be good college
+material, you know, and that's not too many years ahead."
+
+The words "college material" weighed Jerry's spirits. It seemed such a
+long stretch of school before he would be ready for college. And all
+that time he would be expected to do good work, good the rest of this
+term in order to be good in junior high, even better in junior high to
+be good in high school, and then you had to be a regular whiz on
+wheels in senior high to be good college material. So much excellence
+expected of him made Jerry feel tired.
+
+"Guess I'll do the rest of this tomorrow morning before school," he
+said.
+
+"Finish it now," ordered his father. "You know you never have time to
+do homework before school."
+
+"Could be a first time," said Jerry, but he bent over his paper again.
+"What are the chief products of Central America?" he asked.
+
+"That's rather a large question," said Mr. Martin. "Let's see."
+
+While his father was calling to mind the products of Central America,
+Jerry was thinking of the pleasant fact that there were only a few
+more days before he could settle the bill at Bartlett's store. And
+what a relief it would be to have that charge account off his mind!
+Jerry thought how surprised his father would be if he knew the cause
+of his improvement in arithmetic. Jerry had not realized at first
+that all that adding and subtracting when he made change was helping
+his arithmetic, but now he could tell that he could add and subtract
+much faster. After bringing his mother the wrong change just once and
+having to pretend to go back to the store when he went only as far as
+Mr. Bullfinch's, Jerry had learned that it paid to be accurate.
+
+"Bananas, coffee, and some silver," said Mr. Martin.
+
+With difficulty Jerry's mind came back to geography. But he had
+forgotten which question he had asked his father. "Is that the answer
+to number four?" he asked.
+
+"If you can't keep your mind on your work I'm not going to help you.
+Look up your own answers. How can you expect to learn if you don't
+find out for yourself?" Mr. Martin took the evening paper into the
+living room.
+
+Cathy, who was sitting at the other end of the dining room table
+reading, looked up and laughed. "You didn't get much out of Daddy this
+time, did you?"
+
+Jerry saw that the jacket of the book Cathy was reading had a picture
+of a girl and a boy walking together, with the boy carrying a lot of
+books. Hers as well as his, Jerry guessed. Catch him carrying a girl's
+books. "I suppose you have your homework all done," he snarled at
+Cathy.
+
+"Of course, bird-brain."
+
+"Bird-brain! If I have the brains of a bird you haven't any more than
+a--than a cockroach," said Jerry, which was the worst he could think
+of to say just then.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Boys aren't supposed to be so rude to girls. You're the limit. The
+utter, utter limit."
+
+"Who says so?"
+
+"I say so."
+
+"You!" Jerry packed so much scorn into the word that Cathy looked at
+him in surprise.
+
+"What's eating you lately?" she asked.
+
+Jerry gathered his books and papers together. If Cathy began being
+nice to him for a change he might find himself confiding to her. It
+had made him uneasy to be alone with her ever since he had started
+that charge account business. He would be safer now up in his own
+room.
+
+"I can't study here where you keep jawing at me," he complained.
+
+"Well, I like that. I hardly opened my mouth and now you--"
+
+"Like it or lump it," cried Jerry from the doorway. "Today is
+Thursday," thought Jerry, as he ran upstairs. "Monday will be the
+first. That will be the day. All I have to do is hold out till the
+first of the week."
+
+On Friday, Mrs. Martin for once did not need anything at the store. Of
+course she had a big order for Saturday morning. So much that she
+thought of taking the car, with Jerry going along to help with the
+carrying, but Jerry said he could manage perfectly well with his cart.
+
+"No sense wasting gas when you have me to go to the store for you," he
+said.
+
+"Are you sure you're feeling all right?" asked his mother. "I can't
+think what has gotten in to you to be so obliging. But it's nice to
+have a boy so willing to run errands," she said, giving Jerry the
+grocery list. "Sure you can manage?"
+
+Jerry was sure.
+
+When he stopped by at the Bullfinches' on his way back from the
+store--he had to get change from a twenty this time--Mr. Bullfinch was
+getting ready to go to an auction out in Rockville.
+
+"How'd you like to come with me?" he invited Jerry. Mr. Bullfinch had
+been especially cordial to him lately as if to make up for having
+suspected him of housebreaking. "If you've never been to an auction
+you might find it interesting."
+
+Jerry liked the idea. He said he would be right back as soon as he
+took the groceries home and asked his mother if he could go.
+
+"Fine. Hope you can go. I'll be glad of your company," said Mr.
+Bullfinch.
+
+Ten minutes later Jerry and Mr. Bullfinch were on their way to
+Rockville. Jerry had never ridden in Mr. Bullfinch's car before. It
+was not the car that was jerky, Jerry discovered, but Mr. Bullfinch.
+Still, he was a careful driver except when he got to talking. Then he
+seemed to forget his was not the only car on the road and the other
+cars honked at him. Yet Mr. Bullfinch was good at missing the other
+cars. At the very edge of collision he was a marvelous driver. Jerry
+held on to the door pull most of the time.
+
+It was not a long drive to Rockville. They made it by five after ten,
+Jerry noticed by a clock over a bank near where Mr. Bullfinch parked
+the car.
+
+"This is one of the smaller auction houses," explained Mr. Bullfinch,
+as he led the way into a place that looked to Jerry like a secondhand
+furniture store. "But sometimes the most interesting items are put up
+at small auctions."
+
+Jerry jingled the small change in his pocket. His entire wealth at the
+moment was forty-seven cents, hardly enough to buy either a usual or
+unusual item. He noticed that Mr. Bullfinch looked less calm and
+dignified than usual. There was a gleam of excitement in his eyes, an
+intensity in his voice. Jerry could tell that Mr. Bullfinch felt the
+same about auctions as Jerry did about going to baseball games out at
+Griffith Stadium.
+
+Folding chairs had been set up in the middle of the big room where the
+auction was being held. Furniture and stuff was jammed all around,
+even at the back of the platform where the auctioneer stood. He was a
+thick-set, big-mouthed man wearing a blue and red plaid sport shirt.
+
+"That's Jim Bean. He always puts on a good show," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+As Mr. Bullfinch and Jerry took seats in the back row, the auctioneer
+was holding up a table lamp.
+
+"Now here is something really beautiful," he was saying in a slightly
+hoarse yet persuasive voice. "This lamp has a base of real Chinese
+porcelain. Old Chinese porcelain and that's the most valuable, as all
+of you here know. Probably should be in a museum. Shade's a bit worn
+but it's easy enough to get one of those. Now I hope I'm going to hear
+a starting bid of ten for this exquisite piece of antique Chinese
+porcelain. Worth every cent of fifty or more but I'm willing to start
+it at ten."
+
+"One dollar," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+"That bid," said the auctioneer, "was too low for me to hear."
+
+"Two," snapped a lady in the front row.
+
+A man two seats to the left of Jerry held up a finger.
+
+"Three I'm bid. Who will make it five?" said Mr. Bean.
+
+"Three-fifty," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+"Come, come," said Mr. Bean, "I can't accept bids of peanuts.
+Three-fifty I'm offered. We're just starting, folks. Do I hear five?"
+
+Jerry could not tell for sure but somebody in the front row must have
+indicated a bid of five, for now Mr. Bean was droning, "Five I have.
+Who will make it ten? Worth many times more. Five I have for this
+museum piece. Five I have."
+
+The lamp was going to be sold for five, Jerry thought, when Mr.
+Bullfinch sat up straight and snapped, "Six!" His eyes shone. He was
+really enjoying himself.
+
+It was like a game, Jerry thought, and wished he dared risk a bid.
+Better not, he decided, for there was always the chance that nobody
+would bid higher and he would be stuck with something he did not want
+and could not pay for. Better be on the safe side and let Mr.
+Bullfinch do the bidding. That was almost as much fun as doing it
+himself.
+
+The lamp was finally sold to the lady in the front row who had first
+bid against Mr. Bullfinch. Sold to her for nine dollars, which Mr.
+Bean said was giving it away.
+
+"Glad I didn't get it. We already have too many lamps," Mr. Bullfinch
+said in a low voice to Jerry, which proved that he had been bidding
+for the sport of it.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch did not open his mouth when the next few items were
+sold. After starting the ball rolling he was content to let others
+keep it rolling for a while. Besides, a bed, two French chairs, and a
+worn oriental rug were not unusual enough to interest him. Such items
+came up, he explained to Jerry, at nearly every auction held in
+Washington or its suburbs. But when Mr. Bean was handed a large cage
+with a large bird in it by one of his helpers, Mr. Bullfinch sat up
+straight on the edge of his chair again.
+
+"Never knew a parrot to be auctioned off before," he told Jerry.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Diplomat leaving the country says, 'Sell everything,' and that
+included this handsome bird. Speaks Spanish, they tell me. Wish Polly
+would oblige us by saying something in Spanish, but he--I understand
+it's a male--is too shy to speak before strangers. He's been well
+taken care of. Wonderful gloss to his feathers," praised Mr. Bean.
+"Beautiful color. Give an accent to any decor, modern or traditional,
+besides being a wonderful pet. Now who is going to be the lucky owner
+of this gorgeous bird?"
+
+Jerry was surprised that Mr. Bullfinch did not begin the bidding,
+which started at a disgusting low of fifty cents. Mr. Bullfinch did
+not speak until the bidding rose to three dollars. Then, "Five
+dollars," he said in a firm voice that dared anybody to bid higher.
+Since nobody did, the parrot was Mr. Bullfinch's for five dollars.
+
+"Guess I could have had it for four," Mr. Bullfinch said to Jerry.
+"Thought it would go to seven."
+
+Jerry was very glad that Mr. Bullfinch's had been the winning bid. It
+would be interesting to have a Spanish-speaking parrot next door,
+though Jerry would have bid for the parrot himself if he had had the
+money. The only pet the Martin family had was Bibsy. "Wish we had a
+parrot," thought Jerry.
+
+Jerry rather lost interest in the auction after the high spot of
+selling the parrot. Mr. Bullfinch put in a bid once in a while but let
+his bid be topped.
+
+Since Mr. Bullfinch already had a parrot cage, he could keep one cage
+in the house and the other out in the yard, Jerry was thinking, as a
+mahogany sewing table was lifted to the auctioneer's platform. Neither
+Jerry nor Mr. Bullfinch was interested in mahogany sewing tables.
+Jerry's eyes wandered. He hardly heard Mr. Bean praise the sewing
+table and accept the first bid. Jerry turned his head and looked
+around and there was Bill Ellis, a classmate of Jerry's in the sixth.
+The man beside him was his father. Jerry had seen him enough times to
+recognize him.
+
+Bill saw Jerry and grinned and Jerry put up a hand in greeting.
+
+"Sold for three dollars to the young man in the red jacket in the back
+row," said the auctioneer.
+
+Horrified, Jerry realized that his raised arm had been interpreted as
+a bid and that he had just bought a mahogany sewing table. "I don't
+want it. It was a mistake," he wanted to say, but before he could get
+the words out, Mr. Bean was extolling the beauties of a large oil
+painting. Jerry had missed his chance to speak up.
+
+"Be a nice present for your mother," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+Jerry was sunk in despair. He thought that if you bought something at
+an auction you had to keep it. What was he going to do when he and Mr.
+Bullfinch went up to the desk near the door where you paid and what
+you had bought was brought out to you?
+
+"Forty-seven cents isn't any three dollars," thought Jerry dismally.
+Nor did he have any more at home.
+
+Suddenly Jerry thought of a place where there was plenty of ready
+money. In Mr. Bullfinch's grandfather clock. Suppose he told the man
+at the desk that he did not have enough money on him but would be
+right back with some. Then he could borrow enough to pay for the
+sewing table--minus forty-seven cents. Of course it was Mr. Bartlett's
+money, not his, but as soon as he got back from paying for the sewing
+table Jerry could go around the neighborhood and get a lawn or two to
+mow and get money to pay back to Mr. Bartlett. But suppose nobody
+wanted a lawn mowed? And how would he get back and forth between
+Rockville and Washington? On a bus, maybe.
+
+"I believe I've had about enough of this," said Mr. Bullfinch, and he
+led the way to the desk where the paying for and delivery of goods
+took place.
+
+Jerry did a lot of thinking as he followed Mr. Bullfinch. He
+remembered reading a story about a man who worked in a bank and took
+money, expecting to pay it back, only he couldn't. If Jerry borrowed
+some of Mr. Bartlett's money, that wouldn't be much different from
+what the man in the bank did. And he had gone to jail.
+
+"Anyway, it wouldn't be honest," thought Jerry, and knew he couldn't
+get money to pay for the sewing table that way. What the man at the
+desk would say to him when he had to confess he couldn't pay, Jerry
+dreaded to find out.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch paid for his parrot. Jerry moved up toward the desk. He
+was pale behind his freckles. He could see a man bringing over the
+mahogany sewing table. Just then, somebody touched Jerry's arm.
+
+"I'll give you a dollar more than you paid for that sewing table,"
+said a woman in a red hat.
+
+Color rushed back into Jerry's face. He beamed at the woman. "Pay the
+man three dollars and you can have it," he said.
+
+On their way out to the car--and Mr. Bullfinch very kindly let Jerry
+carry the cage with the parrot in it--Mr. Bullfinch explained that it
+would have been quite all right for Jerry to have made a dollar on the
+sewing table. "If somebody offers you more than you have paid it's all
+right to take it. But what made you decide you didn't want the little
+sewing table?"
+
+"My mother has a sewing table," said Jerry.
+
+"Good thing then you got rid of it," said Mr. Bullfinch. "Sometimes
+I'm not so lucky at getting rid of something I've bought and don't
+need. I get a bit carried away when I get to bidding."
+
+Mr. Bullfinch looked calm and dignified again, but Jerry remembered
+how thrilled he had looked at the auction.
+
+"Did you enjoy going to an auction?" asked Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+"I enjoyed most of it," said Jerry. But nobody would ever know, he
+thought, slightly swinging the heavy cage, how relieved he had been to
+get rid of that mahogany sewing table. He rather wished now, though,
+that he had accepted that extra dollar.
+
+
+
+
+9
+
+As Good as a Watchdog
+
+
+It was time for lunch when Jerry got back from the auction. He was
+eating his second big waffle and his fourth sausage--the Martins
+always had an especially good lunch on Saturdays since it was the one
+weekday they were all home to lunch--when there was a knock at the
+back door.
+
+Mr. Martin went to the door, and the family heard him say cordially,
+"Come right in."
+
+Into the dining room came Mr. Bullfinch, parrot cage in hand. The
+parrot was head-down, holding onto the perch with his feet.
+
+"He speaks Spanish," Jerry said, although he had already informed his
+family of that fact. "Make him say something in Spanish, Mr.
+Bullfinch."
+
+Mr. Bullfinch refused to sit down but he did put the parrot cage on a
+chair. "Say '_Buenos dias_,'" he urged the parrot. "That is 'Good day'
+or 'How do you do' in Spanish," he explained. But the parrot said
+nothing in any language.
+
+By this time Jerry and Andy were kneeling on the floor by the cage.
+"Pretty Polly. Polly want a cracker?" crooned Andy.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"He's not a she, he's a he," said Jerry.
+
+"Don't put your finger near the cage. He might bite," Mrs. Martin
+warned Andy.
+
+"He wouldn't bite _me_. Parrots like me," said Andy.
+
+"Where did you ever get acquainted with a parrot?" asked Cathy, who
+had come over to admire the big green bird.
+
+"Somewheres."
+
+"You just dreamed you did." Cathy gave her small brother a hug,
+against which he pretended to struggle. He bumped into the cage and
+the parrot gave a loud squawk.
+
+"Look out," cried Mrs. Martin.
+
+"I've come to ask a big favor," said Mr. Bullfinch in his polite
+voice. "I didn't realize until I got home that my wife is violently
+allergic to parrots. She had a severe sneezing fit when it had not
+been in the house more than five minutes. So, I'll have to dispose of
+the bird. Fine specimen it is, too. Well, it's too late now to get a
+'for sale' notice in the paper before Monday, and if I keep the bird
+in the house until then my wife might have an asthma attack. Would it
+be too much of an imposition for me to ask you to keep the parrot over
+here until Monday?" he asked.
+
+"Not at all," said Mr. Martin heartily.
+
+"I'm not sure we could trust Bibsy to let the parrot alone. You know
+how it is with birds and cats, Mr. Bullfinch," said Mrs. Martin.
+
+"Say, do you think any cat could get the best of a bird with a beak on
+him like that?" cried Jerry. "Anyway, Bibsy is good about leaving
+birds alone. You know she is. Besides, having a parrot who can speak
+Spanish in the house will teach us a little Spanish. I heard you say
+that the reason people in the United States are so poor at speaking
+foreign languages is because they don't start young enough to learn
+one. Here's our chance."
+
+"The amount of Spanish you'd learn from a parrot over a week end won't
+be likely to make you very proficient in the language," said Mrs.
+Martin. Then she turned to Mr. Bullfinch and told him she would be
+glad to keep the parrot until Monday. "But only till Monday," she
+said, looking at Jerry.
+
+After Mr. Bullfinch had expressed his thanks and left, all three of
+the Martin children begged their mother to buy the parrot from Mr.
+Bullfinch. Jerry rashly promised all his allowance for May. Cathy
+wouldn't go as far as that but she would spare a dollar. And Andy
+trotted off for his piggy bank to contribute his pennies.
+
+"I better run after Mr. Bullfinch and tell him he needn't phone in
+that ad for the newspaper," said Jerry.
+
+"You'll do no such thing," said his mother. "I agreed to keep the
+parrot over the week end. I meant over the week end and no longer."
+
+When their mother spoke in that tone of voice, her children had
+learned it was no use to argue.
+
+"I've always wanted a parrot for a pet and here is a good chance to
+get one and you turn it down," grumbled Jerry.
+
+"What's the parrot's name?" asked Mr. Martin.
+
+Jerry didn't know. "Can you ask him what his name is in Spanish?" he
+asked his father.
+
+Mr. Martin didn't think that would do much good but he could and did
+ask the parrot in Spanish what his name was.
+
+There was no response from the parrot.
+
+"Guess you'll have to give him a name," said Mr. Martin.
+
+"Let's call him Pete," suggested Andy.
+
+"Pete's not a Spanish name. He ought to have a Spanish name," said
+Cathy.
+
+"I think Pedro's the Spanish for Pete," said Jerry, remembering a
+story he had read about a Spanish donkey.
+
+They agreed on Pedro. They all addressed the parrot by name but he
+only glared at them with his beady eyes and kept silent.
+
+"Maybe he's dumb," said Andy.
+
+"Maybe he's too young to know how to talk," said Cathy.
+
+"He's not that young," said Jerry.
+
+They were eating dessert--pineapple upside-down cake--when the parrot
+beat his wings and said in a strong, hoarse voice, "_Caramba!_"
+
+"What does that mean?" Jerry asked his father.
+
+"It's a Spanish word that they use the same way we say 'Gosh!'"
+
+"_Caramba!_" repeated Jerry.
+
+"_Caramba!_" Andy tried to say, only it came out more like
+"_Carimba!_" The way he said it made it sound like a swear word.
+
+"Oh, dear, I hope that bird won't teach the children any bad
+language," said Mrs. Martin.
+
+"I somehow doubt if he'll teach them to swear in Spanish over the week
+end," said Mr. Martin, with a twinkle in his eye.
+
+Then there began an argument about where the parrot's cage should be
+hung. Cathy said it should be in her room because the parrot's color
+would go so well with her bedspread and curtains. Jerry said that
+naturally the cage should be in his room. He had known the parrot
+longest, hadn't he?
+
+"He likes me best. I know he does," declared Andy. "I want him to
+sleep with me."
+
+"Maybe the recreation room would be more appropriate," suggested Mr.
+Martin.
+
+Mrs. Martin knew where there was a big hook which could be screwed in
+over one of the windows. "You can spend as much time down there with
+him as you want to," she told the children.
+
+"If we turn the TV on good and loud, that might teach him a little
+English," said Jerry. "We teach him English. He teaches us Spanish."
+
+"Fair enough," said Mr. Martin.
+
+Later in the afternoon Jerry was taking his time about mowing the
+lawn, and wishing there was stuff to put on grass to make it stop
+growing instead of all that fertilizer his father put on to make it
+grow, when his mother called and asked him to run to the store for a
+package of raisins. She wanted to make raisin sauce for the ham they
+were having for dinner that night.
+
+Jerry never minded having to stop mowing the lawn. Now if his father
+had a power mower that would be different. But Jerry's father refused
+to buy a power mower until he decided that Jerry was old enough to run
+it. In Jerry's opinion, he was old enough now. He threw down the
+despised hand lawn mower and started for the store, walking, not
+taking his bike this time. His mother was in no immediate hurry for
+the raisins and Jerry was certainly in no hurry to finish mowing the
+lawn.
+
+This probably would be his last trip to the store before the happy
+time of going to pay the bill on Monday, Jerry thought, making a
+slight detour in order to jump two low hedges in a neighbor's yard.
+Over without touching, he was pleased to note. May Day would mean the
+end of all that rigmarole of the secret charge account. And what a
+relief that would be! In his thoughts Jerry had shied away from
+applying the word deceit to his charging groceries and keeping Mr.
+Bartlett's money over at the Bullfinches', but he had not been able to
+get away from an uneasy feeling about what he had been doing. It was
+his nature to be open and aboveboard. The past month had been a
+strain.
+
+"Now it's all over but the payoff," thought Jerry, waiting for Mr.
+Bartlett to make out the grocery slip. The candy in the showcase next
+to the cash register looked luscious. Jerry wondered how many pieces
+there were in a half pound and thought of asking but decided against
+it. Jerry was still hopeful that Mr. Bartlett would at least make it a
+heavy half pound when the bill was paid.
+
+This time Jerry had to get only change for half a dollar from the
+grandfather clock. He stopped to visit a few minutes with Mr.
+Bullfinch, who had a fireplace fire burning in his den.
+
+"Had a man here last week to give the furnace its summer hookup," said
+Mr. Bullfinch. "Should have had more sense. I forgot that it's
+possible to half roast and half freeze on the same day. This morning
+felt like June and this afternoon's more like March. That's Washington
+spring weather for you."
+
+Jerry agreed that the weather had turned chilly. He watched the flames
+lick the charcoal briquets in the fireplace.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch had a grate shaped like a cradle in his fireplace and
+burned charcoal or coal instead of logs. It would be a wonderful fire
+for a cook-out, Jerry thought. Only he guessed that if you cooked a
+meal over an open fire indoors, it should be called a cook-in.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch inquired after the parrot's health, and Jerry said that
+as far as he could tell, it was good. Jerry said he had wheeled the
+television set over so the parrot could watch the ball game.
+
+"I would have been looking at it, too, if I hadn't had to mow the lawn
+and then go to the store."
+
+"I can see that you are a busy lad," sympathized Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+"I probably won't be over here so often after Monday," said Jerry,
+after replacing the tobacco pouch in the grandfather clock.
+
+"That so? We shall miss having you run in every day or so. Hope you
+won't be too much of a stranger."
+
+Mr. Bullfinch did not ask why Jerry's visits would be less frequent
+after Monday. That was one of the nice things about Mr. Bullfinch, his
+showing no curiosity about Jerry's affairs. Jerry was so grateful to
+him for not asking embarrassing questions that he found it hard not to
+break down and tell him all about the charge account. But that was a
+temptation Jerry had already successfully resisted several times and
+he now did again.
+
+"After I get the candy Monday I'll give him some and tell him all
+about it," Jerry vowed.
+
+Jerry was pleased to find his father finishing mowing the lawn.
+
+"At the rate you were going I thought you might not get it done before
+dark," his father greeted him.
+
+That was the way parents were. Instead of being grateful for what you
+had done, they bawled you out for not finishing the last bit. "I would
+have done it," said Jerry.
+
+Jerry raked up the grass clippings before he took the box of raisins
+in to his mother. "Where's Cathy?" he asked.
+
+"I think she's down looking at TV."
+
+Jerry ran down to the recreation room. The TV had been turned off.
+Cathy was standing close to Pedro's cage.
+
+"Cathy. Cathy. Cathy," she repeated. "Say Cathy."
+
+Jerry was indignant. While he had been hard at work on the lawn and
+then running to the store, Cathy had been trying to teach the parrot
+to say her name.
+
+"You quit that," ordered Jerry.
+
+"I'd like to know why."
+
+Jerry did not come right out and say that he wanted Pedro to say _his_
+name first.
+
+"Seems pretty conceited for you to think your name is the most
+important word in the English language," he said. "Pretty conceited.
+Naturally Pedro should learn the most important words first."
+
+"What _is_ the most important word in the English language?" asked
+Cathy.
+
+"That depends."
+
+"Depends on what?"
+
+"If you could answer as many questions as you can ask, you'd be more
+than half bright."
+
+"Jerry Martin, are you calling me a moron? You know I get better
+grades in school than you do."
+
+"Who called you a moron?"
+
+"You did."
+
+"I did not. I didn't say how much more than half bright you'd be if
+you could answer as many questions as you ask."
+
+"You're--you're impossible."
+
+Jerry turned the television on. As a singing commercial came on, the
+parrot laughed a raucous laugh.
+
+"Say, he may not know how to speak English but that parrot's got
+sense," said Jerry admiringly.
+
+A door above opened. "Jerry," called his mother from upstairs, "you
+come right up here and get that snake off the hall table."
+
+"It's only a little green snake I found when I was cutting the grass,"
+grumbled Jerry. "I was going to catch flies for it. It's a perfectly
+harmless snake."
+
+"Snakes--ugh!" said Cathy.
+
+"Say, what's got into you? I've seen you let a little green garter
+snake wind around your wrist like a bracelet."
+
+"I did, didn't I?" Cathy was suddenly on Jerry's level again. Then she
+looked up at her reflection in a mirror over the television set and
+smoothed her hair at the sides. "I used to do a lot of silly things
+when I was young," she said.
+
+She seemed to be insinuating that she was more grownup than Jerry,
+even though they were twins. Jerry was furious with her. He was angry
+because they were no longer the companions they used to be, though he
+did not realize it. He missed the old Cathy, who reappeared only now
+and then. They were so seldom really together nowadays and it had not
+been long ago that they had been two against anything or anybody which
+threatened one of them.
+
+"I wouldn't be a girl for a million dollars," he said. "Little pats of
+powder, Little daubs of paint, Make a little girly Look like what she
+ain't," he quoted.
+
+"Why Jerry Martin, I wouldn't think of using rouge. Mummy wouldn't let
+me if I wanted to."
+
+"Cathy," called her mother from upstairs. "Come set the table for
+dinner."
+
+Cathy, with one of her movie-queen looks, sailed past Jerry and went
+upstairs.
+
+"Girls are nuts," Jerry said.
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed Pedro.
+
+"You _are_ a smart bird," said Jerry and tried in vain to teach the
+parrot to say "Jerry." Pedro said "_Caramba_" again and a few Spanish
+words Jerry did not understand, but that was all.
+
+He certainly was a handsome bird. Jerry looked at him with affection.
+"Give you time and you'll learn to speak English," said Jerry. And,
+"Gosh, I wish you really belonged to me." Then, having been called
+twice, Jerry went up to dinner.
+
+Jerry went to the neighborhood movie that night with his mother and
+Cathy, so he was later getting to bed than usual. He was dropping off
+to sleep when he heard what he thought was a car backfiring outside.
+Then, at the very edge of sleep again, Jerry smelled smoke. He rushed
+to the window. By moonlight he could see the Bullfinch house almost as
+plain as day. There was smoke coming out of the chimney. There was
+also smoke rising from the roof.
+
+"Fire!" bawled Jerry. "Fire!" he shouted all the way down the stairs.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"The Bullfinch house is on fire!" he yelled at the door of the living
+room where his father and mother were sitting.
+
+"What?" cried his father.
+
+"Is this one of your ideas of a joke?" asked his mother.
+
+Jerry did not stop. The front door slammed behind him. "Fire!" he kept
+shouting all the way to the Bullfinch house, as if a phonograph needle
+had been stuck at that word in a record.
+
+"I've got to get that grocery money out of there. I've got to," Jerry
+thought, so excited and driven that he did not know he was shivering
+with cold.
+
+Jerry rang the Bullfinch doorbell hard with one hand while he pounded
+on the door with the other.
+
+Mr. Bullfinch came to the door. He looked only a little excited.
+
+"Your house is on fire!" cried Jerry.
+
+"I know. I know. I've called the fire department," said Mr. Bullfinch.
+"Won't you come in?" he asked politely, as if it were not strange to
+invite a person to come in a burning house.
+
+Jerry was glad to get Mr. Bartlett's money safe in two pockets of his
+pajamas. There was too much of it for one.
+
+"Want me to help carry out things?" he asked Mr. Bullfinch.
+
+Mrs. Bullfinch was fluttering about, wondering what should be saved
+first, when sirens screeched and fire engines arrived on the scene.
+
+By this time a small crowd had gathered to watch the fire. Jerry's
+mother brought out a jacket for him to put on over his pajamas. He was
+glad of its warmth and also because he could transfer Mr. Bartlett's
+money into larger pockets where bulges would not be so conspicuous.
+
+It was not much of a fire. It was soon out. All that had burned was
+part of the eaves near the chimney. Jerry heard his father ask Mr.
+Bullfinch if he knew how the fire had started. And Mr. Bullfinch
+seemed slightly embarrassed as he explained what he thought must have
+happened.
+
+"I have only my own carelessness to blame," said Mr. Bullfinch. "You
+see, I burn charcoal in the fireplace in my den. I keep a big sack of
+charcoal briquets out in the garage. Well, soon after I put fresh
+charcoal on the fire--I often read late you know--there was a sharp
+series of bangs and I realized what had happened."
+
+Then all that banging hadn't been a car backfiring, thought Jerry.
+
+"There is a shelf in the garage over the sack of charcoal," Mr.
+Bullfinch continued, "and there was a box of cartridges on the shelf.
+It must be that a few cartridges spilled into the charcoal and they
+went off when I put them on the fire. Lucky they fired up the chimney
+instead of in the room. Loosened a few bricks in the chimney and
+burned a bit of the eaves. No great damage, I'm thankful to say."
+
+"That's the most unusual cause of a fire I ever heard of," said Mr.
+Martin.
+
+"I don't want the fire to be out so soon," mourned Andy, who had been
+waked up to come to the fire.
+
+"I'd better get that child to bed," said Mr. Martin.
+
+Jerry would have followed his father but Mr. Bullfinch wanted to thank
+him for coming over to rescue them, even though they had not needed to
+be rescued. "But if I hadn't still been up you might have saved our
+lives," he told Jerry. Then he told Jerry something else that filled
+Jerry's heart with joy. Jerry was so grateful he could hardly speak.
+
+Jerry kept his cause of gratitude to himself until the family were in
+the kitchen having a bite to eat.
+
+"Mr. Bullfinch has given Pedro to me," he said, putting a thick layer
+of grape marmalade and peanut butter on a slice of bread. "A
+five-dollar parrot and he's worth much more than that and Mr.
+Bullfinch gave him to me for almost saving his life."
+
+"Oh, no!" said Mrs. Martin.
+
+"Fire!" bawled a loud hoarse voice from the cellar.
+
+"It's Pedro. He's said his first English word." Jerry was beaming with
+pride. "He'll be as good as a watchdog. Don't miners sometimes take
+parrots into mines with them to warn them against poisonous fumes?"
+
+"A canary I've heard of--not a parrot," said Mr. Martin. "And we're
+really in very little danger from poisonous fumes. But I guess we
+can't risk offending a neighbor by refusing a gift."
+
+"Taking care of a parrot can be a lot of work," said Mrs. Martin.
+
+"I'll help," offered Cathy. And Jerry was grateful to her.
+
+"Fire!" the parrot kept bawling. "Fire!"
+
+"Go down and put something over his cage or we'll not get any sleep,"
+Jerry's mother told him. "Yes, you can keep him. I might have known
+when I saw that parrot come into the house that he would stay."
+
+As Jerry galloped down the stairs to the recreation room with a scarf
+to put over Pedro's cage, he wondered if he would have hurried quite
+as fast over to the Bullfinch house if it had not been for the money
+in the grandfather clock. He had slipped in and put it back there
+before coming home. Fire was not likely to strike twice in the same
+house, he had thought.
+
+Pedro was making gentle, clucking noises.
+
+"Good night, old bird," said Jerry, after he had put the scarf over
+the cage. "I wonder if parrots eat candy," he thought on his way
+upstairs to bed. "When I get that candy from Mr. Bartlett tomorrow I'm
+going to try Pedro on a piece of a lime mint. They're almost the same
+color as the feathers near his throat."
+
+Joy of ownership of a handsome green parrot made Jerry's steps light
+on the stairs. He went to bed by moonlight. There seemed to be a glow
+on everything.
+
+
+
+
+10
+
+May Day
+
+
+"How nice that today is pleasant, so you can have your May Day
+exercises outdoors," Mrs. Martin said, as she bustled about getting
+her children's breakfast on the table.
+
+"Did you finish hemming my dress?" asked Cathy. She was to be crowned
+May Queen and was so worried about looking exactly right that she
+could hardly eat her breakfast.
+
+"It's all packed in a suit box," said Mrs. Martin. "I put in Andy's
+costume under it. Be surer of getting there if you carry it."
+
+"Do I have to wear that silly sash?" Andy was to help wind the Maypole
+and was to wear yellow cambric shorts, a white blouse, and a yellow
+sash around his middle.
+
+"You must dress as your teacher told you to," said his mother. "Be
+careful with that glass of milk, Andy."
+
+Jerry was thankful that his only part in the May Day festival was to
+help seat the parents. And that all he had to wear different from
+usual was an armband. Jerry's mind was not on the May Day exercises.
+He had something far more important to think about. Today was the day
+he had so long looked forward to. Today he would pay the bill at
+Bartlett's store. The store wouldn't be open early enough so he could
+tend to it before school, but the minute he could get away from the
+May Day exercises that afternoon he would race to Mr. Bullfinch's, get
+the money from the grandfather clock, and go pay the bill. Thinking of
+the candy that would then be presented to him made Jerry grin.
+
+"You're looking mighty pleased with yourself this morning, Jerry,"
+said his mother, passing him the bacon.
+
+"Who? Me? It's Cathy who's the big shot today. Hi, Queenie! You
+feeling squeamy?" he teased his sister. "Won't you look like
+something--all dressed up like a circus horse, with a tinfoil crown on
+your head? Yes, your majesty. No, your majesty. After this you'll
+expect everybody to bow down to you. Not me. I'm not forgetting this
+is a democracy."
+
+"All I hope is that you won't do anything at the exercises that will
+disgrace the family," said Cathy.
+
+"Call me a disgrace to the family, do you? Well, I like that."
+
+"There isn't time for you two to squabble. You should be leaving for
+school in less than five minutes," said Mrs. Martin.
+
+"I won't say a word if Cathy'll leave me alone," said Jerry.
+
+"I leave you alone! Why it was you who started--"
+
+"I don't care who started what. It's finished," said Mrs. Martin with
+firmness.
+
+Jerry gave Cathy a mocking smile. He was really proud that she had
+been chosen May Queen. He would never let on to her all the votes he
+had rounded up for her. Not Jerry. He kept it a dark secret that he
+thought her the prettiest girl in their class. No need of making her
+more stuck on her looks than she already was.
+
+Lessons at school were brief that day. By ten-thirty, four boys from
+the sixth grade were helping the custodian put up the Maypole. Then
+there were two chairs from the principal's office to be draped with
+gold-colored cambric, throne chairs for the King and Queen. As soon as
+lunch period was over, Jerry helped carry chairs from the cafeteria
+out to the yard, where they were arranged in rows facing the throne.
+The exercises were to begin at one, but a few parents came before all
+the chairs were in place.
+
+A phonograph on a table behind a tree furnished music for winding the
+Maypole. Jerry, standing with his classmates behind the chairs--there
+were chairs only for the parents--saw that Andy looked very earnest
+and a little scared. He got to going the wrong way once but was
+quickly turned around by his kindergarten teacher. Jerry was glad for
+Andy's sake when the Maypole dance was over.
+
+Now came the crowning of the King and Queen. Cathy wore a white
+billowy dress and her mother's pearl necklace. She was flushed and her
+eyes shone.
+
+"What a little charmer she will be in a few years," Jerry heard one of
+the mothers say.
+
+"Yeah! A snake charmer," Jerry thought. He knew though that that was
+not the kind of charmer meant. Jerry did not want Cathy to charm
+anybody, especially boys. It made him mad if he saw her look moony at
+a boy. "Mush" was what Jerry called a certain way some of the girls
+and boys looked at each other. It was definitely not for him.
+
+Jerry managed to slip away before the exercises were quite over. A
+spring song by the combined fourth and fifth grades rang in his ears
+as he left the schoolyard. Everybody would be free to go home at the
+end of the song, but Jerry wanted to get a head start. He wanted to
+surprise the family with the box of candy the minute they got home.
+
+He ran all the way to the Bullfinches'. "In an awful hurry. See you
+later," he said, rushing in and grabbing the tobacco pouch of money
+from the grandfather clock. Then he was off for the store, running as
+if chased.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Mr. Bartlett, for once, was alone in the store.
+
+"I came to pay the bill," gasped Jerry, and he emptied the contents of
+the tobacco pouch on the counter.
+
+"Bring the bill with you?" asked Mr. Bartlett.
+
+What bill? Jerry did not know anything about a bill. But he had saved
+all the grocery slips. He had gone over to the Bullfinches' the
+night before and added and added. He was sure the money was the right
+amount.
+
+Mr. Bartlett looked up the amount due in a ledger. He was a bit grumpy
+about having to count so much chicken feed, as he called it, as he
+counted the change. "It's all here," he said finally.
+
+For an awful moment Jerry was afraid he was not going to get a bonus
+for paying the bill. It was with enormous relief that he saw Mr.
+Bartlett reach for a half-pound pasteboard box.
+
+"It was a fair-sized bill and I'll give you a full half pound," said
+Mr. Bartlett. "Anything you prefer?"
+
+Jerry said he would like a few pink and green mints. With pleasure he
+watched Mr. Bartlett arrange a row of varicolored mints and fill up
+the rest of the box with chocolates--so full that the cover would
+hardly go down.
+
+Jerry thanked Mr. Bartlett with great heartiness. Fond though he was
+of candy, Jerry didn't take even as much as a taste on the way home.
+He would show it to his mother and Cathy and Andy but he would save it
+untouched until his father got home from work.
+
+"I wanted to prove to you that having a charge account pays off," he
+would tell his father, offering him the open box, after Andy had had
+the first piece--Jerry remembered that Andy was to have the first
+piece. "Where else can you get something for nothing except by
+charging your groceries at Bartlett's store?" That was what Jerry
+would say to his father. Or something else that might occur to him
+later. His father would be sure to see the advantage of charging
+groceries as soon as he cast an eye on all that free candy.
+
+Jerry whistled gaily most of the way back from the store. "Bet you
+can't guess what I have," he cried, as he opened the kitchen door and
+saw his mother and Cathy sitting at the kitchen table. Further
+cheerful words died in his throat when he saw that both his mother and
+Cathy had been crying.
+
+"What's the matter?" Could something terrible have happened to his
+father? Or to Andy? What awful thing could make his mother and Cathy
+look so sad? There were envelopes and letters on the table. His mother
+had been opening her mail. The bad news must have come in a letter,
+then.
+
+"Is Grandma Martin sick again?" Jerry asked.
+
+His mother sobbed, and Jerry couldn't remember ever seeing his mother
+cry. "How could you, Jerry? How could you do such a dreadful thing?"
+
+"He didn't do it. I know he didn't to it!" cried Cathy. "Tell her you
+didn't do it, Jerry. Tell her it must be a mistake."
+
+"To think that a son of mine would be a thief!" said Jerry's mother.
+And the face she turned toward him was full of hurt and
+disappointment. It tore Jerry inside.
+
+"I haven't done anything. Anything wrong," he said.
+
+"You stand there and tell me that you haven't been charging groceries
+at Bartlett's store for a month?"
+
+"Sure I did but--"
+
+"Oh, Jerry!" Cathy burst into tears.
+
+"What did you do with the money?" demanded Jerry's mother. "Mischief
+can be forgiven but stealing is a crime. When I opened an envelope and
+found a bill for the month of April from Bartlett's store, I hoped
+against hope that there must be a mistake. But now you confess you've
+been deceiving me and charging the groceries that I gave you money to
+pay for. I never thought I would be so ashamed of you, Jerry Martin."
+The look she gave him was worse than a blow.
+
+So she thought him a thief--was ashamed of him--believed the worst of
+him before giving him a chance to explain. Jerry felt such a deep hurt
+he felt like crying but he wasn't going to let anybody see him cry.
+And if that was what his mother thought of him, he wasn't going to
+stay around here. Not after she had looked at him as if she wished he
+did not belong in her family.
+
+Jerry slammed the box of candy so hard on the table that the cover
+opened and some of the candy fell out.
+
+"I paid the bill with the money. Ask Mr. Bartlett if you don't believe
+me. I was going to surprise you by showing you the bonus he gives for
+charging a month's groceries. I didn't spend a cent of your old money.
+I--" Jerry suddenly could not endure being there a second longer. He
+rushed out, slamming the door behind him.
+
+Rage sent Jerry hurrying down his street and out to Massachusetts
+Avenue. He was so hurt and angry he could hardly see straight. He
+would run away from home. He would leave Washington. He would go
+somewhere a long way off. He would go where nobody would be likely to
+accuse him unjustly of being a thief. He walked rapidly, almost
+running in his hurry to leave home.
+
+Where should he go? Jerry did not have even the bus fare to go to
+town, let alone get out of the city. But he had two feet, didn't he?
+Maybe after he decided where he was going he would hitchhike. Jerry
+knew his mother disapproved of hitchhiking but why should he pay any
+attention to that now, after she had believed him to be a thief? Jerry
+made no effort, however, to hitch a ride. He walked and walked.
+
+There were azaleas in bloom in some of the yards he passed. Bushes of
+faded lilacs. Bright beds of tulips and pansies. Jerry did not notice
+them. He was in no mood to enjoy flowers. He was about a mile from
+home when he remembered hearing a guest say to his mother, "Florida is
+really delightful in the spring. And after the winter visitors have
+left the prices go down."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jerry thought it might be a good idea to go where the prices had gone
+down. Be easier for him to earn enough to live on. A lot of people
+went fishing off the coast of Florida. Maybe he could help out on some
+fishing boat. Jerry liked to fish and he liked boats. That idea
+appealed to him. But he realized that it was a long, long way to
+Florida from Washington, D. C. It was even a long way--five miles at
+least--from Jerry's house to Memorial Bridge, over which he would
+cross the Potomac into the state of Virginia.
+
+As Jerry went along the part of Massachusetts Avenue which has many
+foreign embassies, it occurred to him that he might be seeing
+Washington for the last time. So he looked hard at the white
+Venezuelan Embassy and at the red brick British Embassy. Those were
+his two favorites, and he wanted to remember how they looked.
+
+There were several circles to go around and a bridge to cross over
+Rock Creek Park before Jerry was anywhere near Memorial Bridge. He
+missed his direction a little when he left Massachusetts Avenue, but
+he was finally in sight of the Lincoln Memorial and the bridge was
+near.
+
+Jerry yielded to an impulse to take a last look at the Lincoln
+Memorial. He climbed the steps and stood and gazed up at the seated
+figure of Abraham Lincoln, with so much sadness and kindness in his
+face.
+
+Having paid his respects to Abraham Lincoln, it didn't seem quite
+right to be leaving town without doing the same by George Washington.
+Weary though his legs were, Jerry trudged over to the Washington
+Monument.
+
+There were not many people waiting in line to go up in the Monument.
+Jerry was the only one who walked up instead of riding to the top in
+the elevator. Jerry did not know why he wanted to climb all those
+eight hundred and ninety-eight steps, but he did. He did a lot of
+thinking and remembering on his way up. That was the way you did when
+you were leaving home, he guessed. He thought of school and home and
+playing baseball--things like that. And some about George Washington.
+Jerry greatly admired all he had read about him. He was glad they had
+named the capital of the United States for Washington.
+
+Jerry had been at the top of the Monument many times, yet it was
+always a thrill to go from window to window and see each scene below.
+From this one he could see the Capitol and the greenish dome of the
+Library of Congress. From another window he looked down on a crowded
+part of the city. Jerry thought that if he knew just where to look, he
+might see the hospital where he had been born.
+
+The window that overlooked the White House was one of Jerry's favorite
+views. He remembered Easter Mondays when he had gone to roll eggs on
+the White House lawn. He remembered a time when he was five, younger
+than Andy--a time when he had gotten separated from his mother--had
+been lost. A Girl Scout had taken him to a place where lost children
+waited to be claimed. A lady played games with them while they waited,
+but a few of the children had cried. Jerry had not cried. He somehow
+felt more like crying now. And even more lost.
+
+Well, he must be on his way. He would take the elevator down, for he
+felt his legs would not last for all of those steps going down. Yet he
+was reluctant to leave the top of the Monument. Each window gave a
+picture postcard view of the city he was leaving. It was up here that
+he was really saying good-by to Washington, D. C.
+
+Why did he have to think just then of the honesty of Lincoln? Or of
+how Washington had stayed with his soldiers through the hardships of
+the winter at Valley Forge? They were not men who had run away from
+the hard things of life. Jerry tried to close his mind against
+thoughts of Lincoln and Washington. They were dead and gone and had
+nothing to do with him. It was no use. It had been a mistake, Jerry
+realized now, to revisit the Memorial and the Monument. Something in
+both places had pulled against his wanting to run away. Suddenly Jerry
+realized that he couldn't do it. He no longer even wanted to run away.
+He wanted to go home.
+
+
+
+
+11
+
+Welcome Home!
+
+
+It was growing dark by the time Jerry reached home. By now his family
+would know for sure that he was no thief, but Jerry knew it was
+possible that his father would be angry about the charge account, in
+spite of the free box of candy. For a moment Jerry hesitated outside
+the door. Then he squared his shoulders and went in.
+
+The whole family were in the kitchen. Jerry saw every eye turned
+toward him--every face light up with relief.
+
+"Hi, Jerry, where've you been?" cried Andy.
+
+"I told you he'd come back," said Cathy.
+
+Jerry was so grateful to Cathy for having believed in him even when
+things looked bad that he thought he would never again tease her about
+reading lovey-dovey books or admiring herself in mirrors.
+
+"Oh, Jerry!" cried his mother.
+
+Jerry read the relief and welcome in her face--the love for him. He
+found that he was no longer angry with his mother. Somewhere on the
+long, long walk, his anger had died. He could understand that it had
+been no wonder she had believed the worst of him--getting that bill
+in the mail and all.
+
+"Got anything to eat?" he asked her.
+
+"We were too worried to eat. None of us has had a bite of dinner."
+Mrs. Martin rushed to the stove and clattered pots and pans as she put
+things on to reheat.
+
+His father's clear blue eyes were on Jerry. "After dinner," he said,
+"you and I will have a little talk."
+
+Jerry did not look forward to that talk, yet it took more than dread
+to spoil his appetite. His mother said that the onions and asparagus
+were not as good as when they had been freshly cooked more than two
+hours ago. But they tasted fine to Jerry. Nor did he mind that the pot
+roast and rolls were reheated. He slathered butter on three rolls and
+would have eaten a fourth if he had not seen the necessity of saving
+room for a piece of apple pie.
+
+Only Andy bothered Jerry with questions while he was eating. "Where
+did you go?" he asked.
+
+"To the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, if you must
+know," said Jerry. "I walked up but I rode down in the Monument."
+
+"Is that all you did?" asked Andy.
+
+"I just walked around."
+
+"Walking around gave you a good appetite," said Mr. Martin, as he cut
+another slice of pot roast for Jerry's plate. "A good thing you don't
+walk around five or six hours every day or I might not be able to
+pay the grocery bill."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jerry winced. He knew his father meant paying cash for groceries, not
+a grocery bill. His father did not have bills--never charged things.
+Looking at his father's firm mouth and chin, Jerry wondered how he
+could have expected to win his father over to having a charge account.
+Parents were the way they were and stayed that way. Especially his
+father. It would take much more than half a pound of candy to make him
+change his mind about charge accounts, Jerry now fully realized.
+
+Mr. Martin said he and Jerry would have their talk down in the
+recreation room. Jerry noticed his mother and Cathy looked worried.
+Maybe they expected his father to give him a beating. Jerry was a
+little worried about that prospect himself.
+
+Jerry saw Pedro watching them as he and his father sat down on the
+sofa.
+
+"Has Pedro talked any more?" Jerry asked.
+
+"Stop gawking at that parrot and pay attention to me," said Jerry's
+father.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You had your mother worried sick."
+
+Jerry said he was sorry.
+
+"Did you stay out so long on purpose to worry her?"
+
+Jerry said that had not been the reason at all. He confessed that he
+had intended to run away to Florida but had changed his mind and come
+home.
+
+Mr. Martin's sternness softened. "A good many boys run away from
+home," he said. "The luckiest ones are those who come back before they
+have run too far. It was this charge account business you were running
+away from, wasn't it?"
+
+"Partly." Jerry could not tell his father that his mother's lack of
+belief in his honesty had had more to do with his running away. Jerry
+did not want to remember how his mother had looked at him. He hoped
+never to bring an expression like that to her face again.
+
+"The worst thing about your scheme for the charge account was that you
+were handling money that belonged to somebody else without his
+permission," said Jerry's father.
+
+"You mean Mr. Bartlett. It was his money but I don't see why--"
+
+"It was not then Mr. Bartlett's money but mine. You contracted a debt
+in my name and withheld money that had been entrusted to you."
+
+The way his father put it made Jerry feel that he had done something
+nearly bad enough for him to be put in jail.
+
+"I was just trying to prove that it pays to have a charge account at
+Bartlett's," said Jerry.
+
+"You knew very well that I don't have charge accounts or intend to
+have them."
+
+"What's the sin about charging things?"
+
+"No sin, of course. I didn't say it was. It's a person's right to
+charge anything he wants to. And my right to pay cash, since I prefer
+to do business that way."
+
+"I guess that wasn't a good idea of mine," said Jerry.
+
+"Mr. Bartlett is a little to blame for what you did," said Mr. Martin.
+"I went to his store and told him in no uncertain terms that I did not
+think it fair for a storekeeper to reward credit customers and do
+nothing for even better cash customers."
+
+"So is he going to stop giving candy to people when they pay their
+bills?"
+
+"No. He says he's sentimental about that old family custom. But he saw
+the justice of my argument. He has decided to give the equivalent of a
+two per cent discount in produce to any customer whose cash receipts
+for a month are more than fifty dollars."
+
+"What does that mean--in produce?"
+
+"Well, it could be a bag of potatoes or a box of candy. That's
+entirely up to your mother."
+
+"Not bad. Not bad at all," said Jerry.
+
+"You can wipe that self-satisfied expression right off your face,
+young man," said Jerry's father. "Taking things in your own hands and
+deciding what I should do with _my_ money was wrong and you know it.
+You do know it, don't you?"
+
+Jerry said he could see now that it had not been the right thing to
+do.
+
+"When I think of all the time and effort you put in for half a pound
+of candy--well, I can only hope that someday you'll work as hard at
+something useful."
+
+Jerry wished his father would hurry up and say what his punishment was
+to be.
+
+"Considering that there are extenuating circumstances, I am letting
+you off easy," said his father. "No baseball games for you for the
+rest of the season. Either at the ball park or on television."
+
+"Not even the World Series on television?"
+
+"Not even the World Series."
+
+The punishment did not seem light to Jerry. He was crushed. "Can't I
+even play baseball?"
+
+Jerry's father considered the question. "Suppose we confine the
+restriction to looking at professional baseball."
+
+Jerry sighed in relief. That was not quite as bad. "What are you going
+to do with that box of candy?" he dared ask.
+
+"I suppose you expected to gorge yourself on it."
+
+"I was going to pass it around," said Jerry. "And take a few pieces
+over to the Bullfinches. He's been awfully nice to me."
+
+"As long as you have it, you may as well pass the candy around," said
+Mr. Martin. "But remember. Don't you ever do such a deceitful thing
+again, Jerry Martin."
+
+"I won't. Honest."
+
+In the cage by the window, the big green parrot flapped his wings.
+
+"Sometimes he does that when he's getting ready to talk," said Jerry.
+
+The parrot remarked something in Spanish which Jerry did not
+understand. Then he said "Jerry" quite clearly. "Jerry!" he called in
+his loud, hoarse voice. "Jerry!"
+
+The subdued look on Jerry's face was replaced by a broad smile. "I'm
+the first one in this family he's called by name," he said to his
+father.
+
+"It's a good name," said Mr. Martin. "Your Grandfather Martin's name.
+He made it a name to be proud of. See that you keep it that way."
+
+Jerry said he certainly would try. He really meant to. He and his
+father went back upstairs together. Weary though he was, Jerry felt
+the relief of having that charge account business off his shoulders.
+In spite of being deprived of his beloved ball games, he felt more
+lighthearted than he had for weeks. First, he would pass the candy box
+to Andy and then to the rest of the family. Then, before taking some
+over to the Bullfinches', he would take a green mint down to Pedro.
+
+"If he doesn't like it, I'll eat it myself," thought Jerry.
+
+
+
+
+THE Surprise OF THEIR LIVES
+
+by Hazel Wilson
+
+
+This book contains the amazing story of Mary Jo and James Dunham, who
+lived on Morning Street in Portland, Maine, with their father and
+mother and small sister Ellen.
+
+You wouldn't expect much out of the ordinary to happen to the Dunhams.
+They went about their happy life--having birthdays and Halloween
+parties, going to school and staying after, getting into barrels and
+the mouths of cannons, quarreling and scolding sometimes, but being
+fond of each other always underneath--as if it would be that way
+forever.
+
+But you would be reckoning without Lizzie Atkins and scarlet fever if
+you thought the sea would always stay calm with only a few ripples for
+the Dunhams. In fact, it was mostly due to Lizzie, whom some parents
+forbade their children to play with, that Mary Jo and James received
+just about the biggest surprise that could happen to anyone.
+
+This is not the place to tell what the surprise was. You will have to
+read the book to find out.
+
+_Drawings and jacket by_
+Robert Henneberger
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: (Hazel Wilson photo by Lange)]
+
+HAZEL WILSON
+
+
+Mrs. Wilson has written several stories with the background of her
+native State of Maine. Among them are THE SURPRISE OF THEIR LIVES,
+about the amazing adventure of a boy and girl in the days when ocean
+liners docked at Portland, and TALL SHIPS, an exciting tale of
+impressment and sea battles during the War of 1812.
+
+In 1956, Mrs. Wilson's work for children and books, as librarian,
+teacher, and author, was recognized by her own college, Bates, in
+Maine, which awarded her its honorary degree of Master of Arts.
+
+For JERRY'S CHARGE ACCOUNT, she has moved her background to what is
+now her home city, Washington, D.C. Readers will discover that this
+background plays an important part in helping Jerry work out his
+difficulties.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+
+Moved some illustrations to avoid breaking up the text. Corrected
+mismatched quotes.
+
+On page 30, changed "his legs for apart" to "his legs far apart".
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Jerry's Charge Account, by Hazel Hutchins Wilson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JERRY'S CHARGE ACCOUNT ***
+
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