Jerry's Charge Account

Au

l right, Jerry?"

ng 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

not failing anything

omething were worrying you. If your arithmetic is giving

t the hang of it. I got a hundred in a

pect you to be good college material, you

e 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 schoo

of this tomorrow morning

her. "You know you never have ti

bent over his paper again. "What are the c

e question," said Mr.

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 no

and some silver,

But he had forgotten which question he had asked his

ok up your own answers. How can you expect to learn if you don't find o

ing room table reading, looked up and laughed. "Yo

ing together, with the boy carrying a lot of books. Hers as well as his, Jerry guessed. Catch

se, bird

n't any more than a-than a cockroach," said Jerry, w

o rude to girls. You're the l

say

say

scorn into the word that Cat

ng you latel

he might find himself confiding to her. It had made him uneasy to be alone with her ever s

here you keep jawing

I hardly opened my

" thought Jerry, as he ran upstairs. "Monday will be the first. That wi

order for Saturday morning. So much that she thought of taking the car, with Jerry going a

n you have me to go to th

has gotten in to you to be so obliging. But it's nice to have a boy so willing

was

he store-he had to get change from a twenty this time-Mr. Bul

ecially cordial to him lately as if to make up for having suspected him of hou

right back as soon as he took the grocerie

I'll be glad of your com

covered, 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 h

t by five after ten, Jerry noticed by a clock ove

led the way into a place that looked to Jerry like a secondhand furniture st

sual item. He noticed that Mr. Bullfinch looked less calm and dignified than usual. There was a gleam of excitement in his eyes, an intensity i

d. Furniture and stuff was jammed all around, even at the back of the platform where the auc

ways puts on a good sho

seats in the back row, the aucti

elain 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

," said Mr.

auctioneer, "was to

d a lady in t

the left of Jerry

o will make it fiv

y," said Mr

t bids of peanuts. Three-fifty I'm offered.

ed a bid of five, for now Mr. Bean was droning, "Five I have. Who will make i

t, when Mr. Bullfinch sat up straight and snapped, "

he chance that nobody would bid higher and he would be stuck with something he did not want and could not pay for

who had first bid against Mr. Bullfinch. Sold to her fo

s," Mr. Bullfinch said in a low voice to Jerry, whic

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 Washi

to be auctioned off b

hing 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. Be

ents. Mr. Bullfinch did not speak until the bidding rose to three dollars. Then, "Five dollars," he said in a

our," Mr. Bullfinch said to Jerr

a Spanish-speaking parrot next door, though Jerry would have bid for the parrot himself if he had

high spot of selling the parrot. Mr. Bullfinch put

er'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.

inned and Jerry put u

oung man in the red jacket in th

hogany sewing table. "I don't want it. It was a mistake," he wanted to say, but before he could get the word

for your mother,"

ou had to keep it. What was he going to do when he and Mr. Bullfinch went up to th

dollars," thought Jerry dismally.

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 aroun

r. Bullfinch, and he led the way to the desk wher

rked in a bank and took money, expecting to pay it back, only he couldn't. If Jerry borrowed some of Mr. B

ney to pay for the sewing table that way. What the man at the desk would sa

He was pale behind his freckles. He could see a man bringing over

an you paid for that sewing tab

beamed at the woman. "Pay the man thre

plained that it would have been quite all right for Jerry to have made a dollar on the sewing table. "If somebody offers

a sewing tabl

imes I'm not so lucky at getting rid of something I've bought a

ied again, but Jerry remembered how

g to an auction?" a

ly swinging the heavy cage, how relieved he had been to get rid of that mahogany s