bout that chimp that
does finger painting? Her owner sells the pictures. Actually gets real
money for them. That's more than old Andy gets for _his_ finger
painting," said Jerry.

"Not if I wanted to," said Andy.

Several large oil paintings were carried into the house next door, but
they were too far away for Jerry to judge if they had been painted by
a chimp. He guessed not. Pictures painted by chimps weren't usually
put in heavy gold frames. In went a tall grandfather clock, a
full-length mirror with a gold eagle on top, an immense old-fashioned
roll-top desk.

"I never saw such a mixture of good antiques and trash," said Mrs.
Martin.

"Say," said Jerry, "if Mr. Bullfinch does have a chimp for a pet,
maybe Andy and I can teach him finger painting. Then if we sold the
pictures Mr. Bullfinch would give us part of the money."

[Illustration]

Cathy made a noise that showed what she thought of that idea.

"You and your schemes!" said Mrs. Martin. She turned away from the
window and smiled at Jerry. Then one of those especially noticing
looks came over her face. "What on earth do you have in your pants
pocket that drags it down? You shouldn't stuff heavy things in your
pockets. You'll tear them and they're hard to mend."

The next thing would be to ask him to take out whatever was weighing
down his pocket. Jerry could sense it coming. "I just thought of
something," he cried, and rushed from the living room. A few seconds
later the back door slammed behind him. He had made it safely
outdoors.

"Whew, that was a narrow escape!" he thought. But he felt Mr.
Bartlett's money as not only a heavy weight in his pocket but on his
mind. "I won't dare take it back in the house, with Cathy sniffing all
over the place. Even if she wasn't, the money wouldn't be safe up
attic, not after my mother gets to house-cleaning up there. She
doesn't miss a thing. And the cellar would be no good. My father is
always hunting around down there for screws and paint and stuff he's
put away and can't remember where. But what the heck am I going to do
with Mr. Bartlett's money now?"

5

New Neighbors

Jerry thought of burying Mr. Bartlett's money somewhere in the yard.
He gave up that idea when he considered the complication of digging it
up every time he came back from the store and had to make change.
Besides, this time of year his mother was likely to be planting
flowers all over the place.

Jerry decided he might as well