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