Jerry's Charge Account

e It,

n 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

arly on Saturday?" Mrs. Martin asked

embered it's April Fools' Day," he said and chuckled. "Can't you just see Dad's

r's morning coffee. It would be tragic. Put the salt back, rinse out the sugarbowl

plained. Salt spilled on the floor when he poured it

mother, and Jerry had to ge

e hot water so hard that he had to draw his hand back quickly or it

s instead of china if you're to h

That new glue I bought last week will mend chin

cracked anyway," she said consolingly. "Now go get dressed. As long as you're up you may as well

ary word-work! Just heari

minutes," said his mother brightly.

go back to bed again. He did not mind. He was wide awake. It would be a novelty

ld hardly get you out of bed at ten,"

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 ch

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

west 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

er came to the door to shake a dustcloth. Also

ere's a great big spider

n't April-fool me that easy," she said in a

r one thing Cathy had recently developed an intense i

aid, and laughed when Cathy raised her hand to her

. "Half the time you don't even notice it when

anged the subject. "Have you fooled

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 Mum

d, giving her pony t

are seals at the zoo. Say, I wouldn't mind going to the z

buy a new dress for Easter." Cathy

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 ge

front window. "I want you to run

usually walked or rode his bike to the store) but it was a ma

Cathy to do," said Mrs. M

ce? 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 woul

nize it," Jerry had heard his mother say. She liked stores where the owner came to wait on you. But Jerry su

breakfast when he was a boy, she thinks she should keep me busy," he grumbled to himself as he went in the house

because she did not like to plan meals ahead. A brisk cold day might make her feel like having por

d 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

esh," Mrs. Martin often said. That meant a lot of trips to the store. Too m

uts instead of buying bakery ones. How good doughnuts tasted hot out of the fat! He wish

r you and then go to t

at 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. Bartle

groceries. "How long will it be before Andy can take that old cart to the store

rs. And you know Andy isn't nearly old enough to take a big cart out

hat didn't bother him. He met a couple of boys in his grade at

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

to make up her mind. After trying without much success to engage Bill in conversation, Jerry stood in front of the candy showcase nex

e, green, and yellow. And caramels, chocolate-covered nuts, coconut bonbons, choc

ame in but Jerry would be next to be waited on. He would speak right up and say

ld. "I want to pay my March grocery bill," she said. She stood beside Jerry nea

rtlett. "My daddy and my granddaddy before him always

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

r 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 instea

r 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 ou

a box of candy at the end of the month. And if we eat an awful lot and the bill is nice and

f April but charge them. He would keep in a safe place the money his mother gave him to pay for th

thing to charge our groceries," thought Jerry. The scene was so vivid in hi

ars and twenty-one cents," said

y loose in his pocket but she had said he could risk losing his own money that way, not her

please," he

a charge account?"

t all righ

's credit is good as gold, which is more than I can say for some."

heavy bag of groceries in his cart. The grocery slip he took out of the ba

to give his mother before he could put the eight dollars and twenty-one cents the groceries cost in a safe hiding p

ask to have his bill changed. He was sure Mr. Bartlett

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 u

the potatoes fell out of the cart and broke and Jerry lost two of them down a sewer. After that he went more s