et and hurried out of the store. Even the
sight of the candy in the showcase had not lifted his spirits. The
half pound of candy he might get when he paid the bill at the end of
the month seemed a small reward for all he was going through to earn
it. "Only three weeks to go," he told himself, putting the package of
fish in his bicycle basket. But three weeks seemed a long time.

Maybe it hadn't been a good idea, this charging business. But it was
no good time to stop now. He would have no candy to present to his
parents to prove the advantage of charging groceries at Bartlett's.
No, having begun, Jerry had to see it through.

"Might as well get killed for a sheep as a lamb," Jerry thought,
riding through a puddle on his way to the shopping center. It was a
remark he had heard his father make, and seemed somehow appropriate.

Jerry had to wait and wait before George would notice him.

"Don't tell me you've come again for change!" George cried. "I won't
give it to you."

"Please, just this one time," Jerry pleaded. "I have to have it.
Honest."

Grumbling, George went to the cash register and changed the bill. Then
he took Jerry firmly by the shoulder. "Out you go and stay out. I
don't want to see hide nor hair of you again until you need your next
haircut. Understand?"

Jerry understood. He realized that getting bills changed at the
barbershop was over.

[Illustration]

Jerry was not his usual buoyant self over the weekend. His mother
thought he might be getting a cold and gave him vitamin pills and made
him drink extra orange juice. She knew something was troubling him but
could not get out of him what it was. Jerry shut a door of
communication between them. He found it lonely, having to be on his
guard against blurting out his secret.

At a little after seven on Monday evening, the whole Martin family
piled in the car to go to the P. T. A. meeting. It was unusual for the
children to go to a P. T. A. but not for Mr. and Mrs. Martin. Jerry
and Cathy insisted that their parents go to the meetings, for a count
was made and the class represented by the most parents got an award.
Now that Andy was in kindergarten both parents stood up when the count
was for Miss Prouty's room. And Mr. and Mrs. Martin stood up to be
counted twice for the sixth grade.

All the Martins but Andy took seats near the front of the auditorium.
He had to go immediately behind scenes on the stage, since the play he
was to be in was to co