"Yes, you did, too! She gave it to you for something, and you were going to spend part of it for soda; that's stealing."
"'T isn't, either!"
"'T is, too, and you know it! And if you aren't ashamed of it why don't you want me to tell her?"
Grant saw that his enemy had outflanked him, and that his only possible course was to make the best terms he could.
"Now, see here," he said more quietly, as he pointed to his head again; "this isn't worth anything; but you've cornered me, so I can't get out. But, if I pay you, you must give me back a nickel, to pay for the hole you snicked out of my ear."
Marjorie's face fell. She had been hoping that he would not notice the little red spot on the tip of his left ear.
"And then," continued Grant remorselessly; "you can just put on your hat, and come along with me to Allie's. We'll each put a nickel in the bank, and then we'll be square. But you'd better believe I'll tell the boys who did this, so they won't get taken in as I did."
A week later, Charlie and Allie opened the bank and counted the funds. Only sixty-five cents had accumulated there; Allie's face fell as she surveyed the meagre hoard.
"Hush up!" commanded Charlie, as he dropped something yellow and shining into her lap. "I was in a bad fix last summer, and I know how 'tis, so I ought to help on more than the rest of you. You just keep still and don't say anything to the others."
And no one else ever knew the full history of the magazine that put in its appearance at the beginning of the following month, with a greeting to the stranger boy from his friends across the creek.