but the avocado. Jerry
didn't like avocados so it was easy for him to forget that. It was
while Mr. Bartlett was counting out a dozen oranges that Jerry had
what he considered a very bright idea. There was a way he could
convince his father that Bartlett's store was the one place where it
didn't pay to pay cash.

"It won't be dishonest," Jerry argued to himself. "I won't be getting
a cent out of it. Only a box of candy at the end of the month. And if
we eat an awful lot and the bill is nice and big for April, maybe Mr.
Bartlett will give me a pound box of candy instead of a half pound."

The plan that had popped into Jerry's mind was this--he would not pay
for groceries for the month of April but charge them. He would keep in
a safe place the money his mother gave him to pay for them. And the
first day of May he would come in with it and pay the bill and be
given a box of candy.

"When I take the candy home and pass the box to Dad, he'll see it's a
good thing to charge our groceries," thought Jerry. The scene was so
vivid in his mind that he could almost see his father taking a
chocolate-covered almond.

"I said that will be eight dollars and twenty-one cents," said Mr.
Bartlett, a bit impatiently.

Jerry reached in his pocket and got out his mother's coin purse. He
preferred carrying money loose in his pocket but she had said he could
risk losing his own money that way, not hers. It was while he was
opening the purse that he suddenly decided to try out his bright idea.

"Charge it, please," he said huskily.

"You folks opening a charge account?" asked Mr. Bartlett.

"Isn't that all right with you?"

"Sure. Sure. You've been trading with me for years. And your father's
credit is good as gold, which is more than I can say for some." Mr.
Bartlett made out a slip, which he put in the bag of groceries.

"He knows me and can tell I'm honest," thought Jerry happily, as he
put the heavy bag of groceries in his cart. The grocery slip he took
out of the bag and put in his pocket. "I must remember to save all the
slips," he thought.

[Illustration]

Jerry was almost home when he remembered that his ten-dollar bill was
still unbroken. And that he had to have change to give his mother
before he could put the eight dollars and twenty-one cents the
groceries cost in a safe hiding place. It was Mr. Bartlett's money,
Jerry thought. Jerry would just be keeping the money for him until a
month was up.

Jerry was relucta