y, but the candy looked yummy! There were glass trays of round mints,
pink, white, green, and yellow. And caramels, chocolate-covered nuts,
coconut bonbons, chocolate nougats--nothing there Jerry didn't like.
He looked at the candy yearningly.

Now the lady had decided on a sirloin steak, thank goodness. Another
customer came in but Jerry would be next to be waited on. He would
speak right up and say he was next if Mr. Bartlett started to wait on
somebody else first, he decided.

The lady wearing the blue scarf reached into her handbag and got out
her billfold. "I want to pay my March grocery bill," she said. She
stood beside Jerry near the cash register while Mr. Bartlett was
behind the counter giving her change.

"Don't go off without your little bonus," said Mr. Bartlett. "My daddy
and my granddaddy before him always gave folks a little bonus when
they paid their bills."

Jerry saw Mr. Bartlett get out a half-pound pasteboard box. Saw him
reach in the showcase and bring out enough candy to fill two rows in
the box. Jerry had heard that Mr. Bartlett gave candy to charge
customers when they paid their 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 never charged
anything. Mr. Martin believed in paying cash for everything. Even for
a new car. He was funny that way. Jerry had never much minded until
this minute when he saw a charge customer rewarded for being a charge
customer.

"Wish we had a charge account. I wouldn't have to worry about losing
money on the way home, if we did," thought Jerry, remembering the
tendency of loose change to fall out of his pocket when he jumped over
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
instead of paying cash, so a charge account must be a good thing. Wish
my father thought so. If he were here and saw Mr. Bartlett hand over
that free candy, he'd be bound to see it pays to charge your
groceries."

"Now, young man, what can I do for you?" asked Mr. Bartlett. Jerry had
been thinking so hard about the advantages of having a charge account
that he had hard work remembering what his mother had sent him to the
store for. But he managed to recollect all