shake the truth out of Andy before the little boy's
bedtime. But Andy followed his mother and Cathy to the kitchen after
dinner and conversed with them all the time they were doing the dinner
dishes. He had a long story about how a boy had been so bad that
morning in kindergarten that the teacher made him sit in a chair all
the time the others were playing a hopping and singing game.

"I could have hopped the highest. I'm a good hopper. Not a
grasshopper, just a hopper. Want to see me hop?"

"So it was you who were the bad boy. What did you do that was
naughty?" asked his mother.

"Nothing. I didn't say it was me. Anyway, Tommy Jenks joggled my arm
or I wouldn't have thrown a crayon at him. I didn't mean to hit him in
the eye. Lots of times I throw things and they don't hit anybody."

"And that's the truth," remarked Jerry, who had stalked Andy to the
kitchen. Andy's confession encouraged Jerry. If he owned up so easy
about throwing a crayon, it would be a cinch to get him to acknowledge
that he had been inside the Bullfinch house before dinner. "Come on
up to my room," Jerry invited him. "I've got something to show you."

But it seemed that Andy didn't want to be shown anything just then.
Usually Jerry tried to keep Andy out of his room instead of inviting
him in. "He's not so dumb," thought Jerry.

Andy proved very hard to corner. Jerry could not get him alone until
Andy was in the bathroom, brushing his teeth before going to bed. Then
Andy tried to get rid of him.

"It's not polite to come in the bathroom when somebody's here. Mummy
said so."

"Listen," said Jerry. "You listen to me, Andy Martin."

"What you want?"

"I want you to own up to breaking that record over at the Bullfinch
house."

"What record?" Andy's voice was slightly muffled by toothpaste.

"You know as well as I do. 'The Stars and Stripes Forever.'"

Andy spit in the sink. There was a trace of toothpaste at the left
corner of his mouth. His eyes were innocent. A bit puzzled maybe but
unclouded by guilt. "I can't read the names on records."

"But you were whistling it at dinner."

[Illustration]

Andy hung up his toothbrush. He tried to get past Jerry but Jerry
grabbed him. It was like holding a small wild animal but Jerry held
on. "Nobody's going to be hard on you, Andy. I _know_ you were in the
Bullfinch house playing that record."

"Nobody knows where I am but me," said Andy.

"How did you get all that coal dust on you? You go