," she told the children.

"If we turn the TV on good and loud, that might teach him a little
English," said Jerry. "We teach him English. He teaches us Spanish."

"Fair enough," said Mr. Martin.

Later in the afternoon Jerry was taking his time about mowing the
lawn, and wishing there was stuff to put on grass to make it stop
growing instead of all that fertilizer his father put on to make it
grow, when his mother called and asked him to run to the store for a
package of raisins. She wanted to make raisin sauce for the ham they
were having for dinner that night.

Jerry never minded having to stop mowing the lawn. Now if his father
had a power mower that would be different. But Jerry's father refused
to buy a power mower until he decided that Jerry was old enough to run
it. In Jerry's opinion, he was old enough now. He threw down the
despised hand lawn mower and started for the store, walking, not
taking his bike this time. His mother was in no immediate hurry for
the raisins and Jerry was certainly in no hurry to finish mowing the
lawn.

This probably would be his last trip to the store before the happy
time of going to pay the bill on Monday, Jerry thought, making a
slight detour in order to jump two low hedges in a neighbor's yard.
Over without touching, he was pleased to note. May Day would mean the
end of all that rigmarole of the secret charge account. And what a
relief that would be! In his thoughts Jerry had shied away from
applying the word deceit to his charging groceries and keeping Mr.
Bartlett's money over at the Bullfinches', but he had not been able to
get away from an uneasy feeling about what he had been doing. It was
his nature to be open and aboveboard. The past month had been a
strain.

"Now it's all over but the payoff," thought Jerry, waiting for Mr.
Bartlett to make out the grocery slip. The candy in the showcase next
to the cash register looked luscious. Jerry wondered how many pieces
there were in a half pound and thought of asking but decided against
it. Jerry was still hopeful that Mr. Bartlett would at least make it a
heavy half pound when the bill was paid.

This time Jerry had to get only change for half a dollar from the
grandfather clock. He stopped to visit a few minutes with Mr.
Bullfinch, who had a fireplace fire burning in his den.

"Had a man here last week to give the furnace its summer hookup," said
Mr. Bullfinch. "Should have had more sense. I forgot that it's
possible