ride for Saturday afternoon; we shall start about three
o'clock from the schoolhouse, and get back to Aggie's in
time for the party. Will you go?

I am sure aunt Betsey will feel grateful to you girls when
she knows you each gave twenty cents towards making her
comfortable, and if it had not been for the "lack of
money," we boys would have paid our share.

Your friend, TOM.

"Hurrah! " shouted Dan Crockett. "I reckon that will fix things, an'
when they find that we bought the wood for aunt Betsey, they can't
think that they've got the right to feel very
superior."

"They'll never know but that we meant all the time to do this very
thing," said Tom, "an'
we shall have as good a time as can be had."

There was no question but that this scheme would be carried out, for
even Si Kelly came to understand that it was a very graceful way of
extricating themselves from what, at one time, promised to be a
decidedly disagreeable position, and he announced his decision by
saying:

"Now, every feller must hurry home an' get the ten cents, so's we can
buy the wood quick, an' then there won't be any chance for the girls to
believe that we thought of this after we got their letters."