nted them. The boys had been
standing around at Brown's field watching the ball game. It was hot and
dusty and their mouths watered. Carol had ten cents of his own. By using
their nickel and the remaining fifteen cents they could each have a
dish. Ernest hesitated about this borrowing, but the boys said they
could pay it back. Ernest was sure he had that much in his toy bank at
home, and the other boys were positive they could shake it through the
slit if they tried hard enough.

So the tempter won and the trust money was speedily converted into
ice-cream. The ice-cream once down the transaction began to take on a
different phase. The boys plodded home rather silently.

Sherman voiced the first doubt.

"Say, Ern, are you sure you've got enough?"

Ern was wondering himself if he had.

"I guess we'd better go in the side gate and get it out before the girls
see us," he replied.

The boys slipped in the side gate in a manner so noiseless that it might
almost be called sneaking. On up to Ernest's room they filed and
hastily secured the bank.

Alas, no rattle of coin repaid them. Absent-minded Ernest had entirely
forgotten that his father had taken the contents to the savings bank for
him the preceding month, and that he had not been able to save up
anything since.

The boys looked at each other.

"Maybe Mother'll lend me fifteen cents," said Ernest after a pause.

A speedy search of the house revealed the sad fact that Mother was not
at home.

The boys' faces fell. They someway did not care to meet the little
girls. Ernest twisted his scalp lock in deep thought.

"Say, I'll cut home and ask Sister Sue for it," volunteered Sherm, who
didn't have red hair and freckles for nothing. "She'll almost always
help a fellow out."

The boys watched impatiently. Fifteen minutes passed. They could see
from the window that the little girls were all on the front fence
watching for their return.

"How'll Sherm ever get in?" asked Carol gloomily.

"He won't! They've seen him now, I bet. Watch them all running. Sherm
must be trying to make it in the back way. Gee, they've got him!"

Sherm shook off his pursuer's clinging fingers. His longer legs soon
distanced them enough for him to dash up the stairs and shoot into the
room ahead of them. Ernest promptly shut the door and bolted it.

Sherm dropped panting into a chair, shaking his head.

"Sue wasn't there, and Mother didn't have any small change and said I'd
had more