uggested Laddie, for Parker, the good-natured
cook, was giving the boys a little treat.

"Yes, I'll give you a slice for your friend," she said.

So she spread him a nice slice of bread and jam, and Russ and Laddie,
carrying their own, which they ate on the way, also took one to their
new playmate.

"Let's play tops," suggested Tom. "We can go down the street where the
sidewalk is big and smooth, and spin 'em there."

"All right," agreed Russ. "We'll have some fun."

Down the street they went, to a corner, where a big apartment house
stood close to the sidewalk. There the pavement was smooth, just the
place for spinning tops.

"There, mine's spinning first!" cried Tom, as he flung his top down,
quickly pulling the string away, and thus making the top whirl around
very fast. "Let's see if either of you can hit my top with yours."

"I can!" said Russ, and he threw his top at Tom's with all his might.

Russ didn't hit his playmate's top, but he did hit something else. Up
into the air bounced Russ's top, and, the next moment, there was a crash
of glass.

"Oh!" cried Tom. "You've broken a window!"

CHAPTER XIX

FLYING A KITE

That was just what had happened. When Russ threw his top down so hard,
it had bounced up again from the sidewalk, and had gone sailing through
the air against one of the lower windows of the apartment house which
stood so close to the pavement. And the top went right through the
glass.

The three little boys were so surprised that they just stood there,
looking at the shower of broken glass on the pavement. Then Tom cried:

"Oh, we'd better run!"

"What for?" asked Russ.

"'Cause you broke the window. The lady or the man'll come out an'
they'll get a policeman."

Russ said nothing for two or three seconds. Laddie, who was just going
to bounce down his top, to spin it, still held it in his hand. He
didn't want to break a glass.

"Come on!" cried Tom in a whisper. "Come on 'fore they catch us!"

Russ shook his head.

"No," he answered. "I'm not going to run. I'll stay here, and when they
come out I'll tell 'em I busted it and my father will pay for it. That's
what we always do; don't we, Laddie?"

"Yep," answered the smaller boy.

"Did you ever break windows before?" asked Tom, who had started to run
away, but who came back when he saw that his two friends were not coming
with him.

"We broke one at Grandma Bell's," said Russ.

"But she didn't make us pay for it,"