Nowhere," Bobby declared emphatically;

"He has always favored Hester and Lil," Jess

"Pooh!" again put in the irrepressible. "That's only because Pretty Sweet
thinks there is nothing in this world so good or great as money; and both
the Grimes and the Pendleton families have got oodles of it."

"I don't know about that," Chet said quite as thoughtfully as his sister.
"It may not be their folks' money that attracts Purt to those two girls."

"What then?" demanded Bobby.

"They flatter him. He can lap that up like our cat laps cream."

"That is true," agreed Jess Morse.

"Certainly we don't flatter, him," Bobby said bluntly.

"It may be that we have never given Purt a fair deal," Laura observed.
"Hester and Lil do not make fun of him."

"And is he paying Hester back by shouldering something for her?" Jess
asked.

"Oh, she never was in that car when it was taken away from where Purt had
it parked before the Grimes' house," Chet hastened to declare with
assurance. "I got all the facts from Dan Smith. He'd swear to them."

"Let us hear the particulars," begged Laura.