ought to know, and I want your advice whether I ought to say anything
about it or not."

"What a long winded chap you are, Sankey! What is it all about?"

"Well, you know, Ripon, when we got up that subscription for the
cricket things, Mather didn't give anything. He said he had no
money."

"No; and he hadn't any," Ripon said, "for I had only the day before
lent him twopence to buy some string, and he paid me when he got
his allowance on Saturday."

"Well, a day or two after that I came back after tea for a book that
I had left behind me, and as I came in at the gate there Mather was
standing at the corner talking to Mother Brown. He had his back to
the door, and they didn't see me. She was talking loud and angry
and I couldn't help hearing what she said."

"Well, what did she say?" Ripon said rather impatiently.

"She said, 'You have disappointed me over and over again, and if
you don't pay me that ten shillings you borrowed of me last half,
and the bill for the cakes, by Saturday, I will see the master and
tell him all about it.' I didn't hear any more; but on the Saturday
I saw him go up to her in the field and pay her something. Of course
I don't know what it was; not all, I think, by the manner in which
she took it; still, I suppose it was enough to content her. About
ten days afterward we heard the book was missing. It didn't strike
me at the time; but afterward, when I thought of it, I remembered