still good for this season's use, or would I like to have a pair like
those he'd noticed in the window down at Higgins' store. Oh! that
nearly broke me all up. I felt as if I wanted to throw myself down on
my knees before Mm, and say that I didn't deserve new skates, or
anything like that this year, because I was a wretched, careless boy,
who had done something wicked. But somehow I managed to stammer out
that I guessed my old ones were going to be good enough for one more
season, though, Jack, they are in bad shape; but then it would have
made me feel worse than ever if I'd accepted his offer, after failing
him when he trusted me."

Of course Jack knew that Big Bob was making a mountain out of
molehills, but he could readily understand how that came. The big
fellow was extremely sensitive, and the possible enormity of his
offense kept standing out before him all the time and constantly
growing in dimensions.

What he said about his father made Jack secretly smile. It was about
time, he told himself, that a reserved man like Mr. Jeffries woke up,
and began to take more interest in his children, and not leave it all
to his good wife. And in the end possibly this affair might work out
for the good of all concerned, the father as well as the son.
Meanwhile, Big Bob must be encouraged to hold on for a time longer,
until they could know the actual state of affairs.




CHAPTER IX