Jerry's Charge Account

y

ay Day exercises outdoors," Mrs. Martin said, as she bus

to be crowned May Queen and was so worried about looki

Martin. "I put in Andy's costume under it.

wind the Maypole and was to wear yellow cambric shorts

d you to," said his mother. "Be car

re important to think about. Today was the day he had so long looked forward to. Today he would pay the bill at Bartlett's store. The store wouldn't be open early enough so he could tend to it before school, but the minute he c

yourself this morning, Jerry," sai

look like something-all dressed up like a circus horse, with a tinfoil crown on your head? Yes, your majesty. No, y

nything at the exercises that will

to the family, do yo

e. You should be leaving for school in l

if Cathy'll leave me

ne! Why it was y

what. It's finished," said

et on to her all the votes he had rounded up for her. Not Jerry. He kept it a dark secret that he thought

rincipal's office to be draped with gold-colored cambric, throne chairs for the King and Queen. As soon as lunch period was over, Jerry helped carry chairs from the cafe

airs-there were chairs only for the parents-saw that Andy looked very earnest and a little scared. He got to going the wrong way

hy wore a white billowy dress and her mother's p

ll be in a few years," Jerry

ot want Cathy to charm anybody, especially boys. It made him mad if he saw her look moony at a boy. "Mush" was

rades rang in his ears as he left the schoolyard. Everybody would be free to go home at the end of the song, but

r," he said, rushing in and grabbing the tobacco pouch of money from the

or once, was al

erry, and he emptied the contents

with you?" ask

all the grocery slips. He had gone over to the Bullfinches' the night

grumpy about having to count so much chicken feed, as he calle

a bonus for paying the bill. It was with enormous relief th

give you a full half pound," said M

tched Mr. Bartlett arrange a row of varicolored mints and fill up the re

didn't take even as much as a taste on the way home. He would show it to his mother a

t Andy was to have the first piece. "Where else can you get something for nothing except by charging your groceries at Bartlett's store?" That was what Jerry would say to his

ried, as he opened the kitchen door and saw his mother and Cathy sitting at the kitchen table. Fu

wful thing could make his mother and Cathy look so sad? There were envelopes and letters on t

rtin sick agai

ever seeing his mother cry. "How could you, J

!" cried Cathy. "Tell her you didn't do

erry's mother. And the face she turned toward him was

nything. Anything

you haven't been charging grocerie

I di

Cathy burst

for the month of April from Bartlett's store, I hoped against hope that there must be a mistake. But now you confess you've been deceiving me and chargin

ch a deep hurt he felt like crying but he wasn't going to let anybody see him cry. And if that was what his mother thought o

ard on the table that the cover ope

howing you the bonus he gives for charging a month's groceries. I didn't spend a cent of your old money. I-

aight. He would run away from home. He would leave Washington. He would go somewhere a long way off. He would go where nob

Maybe after he decided where he was going he would hitchhike. Jerry knew his mother disapproved of hitchhiking but why should he pay an

y did not notice them. He was in no mood to enjoy flowers. He was about a mile from home when he remembered hearing a guest

ida. Maybe he could help out on some fishing boat. Jerry liked to fish and he liked boats. That idea appealed to him. But he realized that it was a long, long way to Flori

that he might be seeing Washington for the last time. So he looked hard at the white Venezuelan Embassy an

erry was anywhere near Memorial Bridge. He missed his direction a little when he left Massa

ial. He climbed the steps and stood and gazed up at the seated figur

t to be leaving town without doing the same by George Washington. Wear

ose eight hundred and ninety-eight steps, but he did. He did a lot of thinking and remembering on his way up. That was the way you did when you were leaving home, he guessed. He thought of school and

elow. From this one he could see the Capitol and the greenish dome of the Library of Congress. From another window he looked down

a time when he was five, younger than Andy-a time when he had gotten separated from his mother-had been lost. A Girl Scout had taken him to a place where lost children waited t

those steps going down. Yet he was reluctant to leave the top of the Monument. Each window gave a picture p

d things of life. Jerry tried to close his mind against thoughts of Lincoln and Washington. They were dead and gone and had nothing to do with him. It was no use. It had been a mistake, Jerry realized now, to rev