“I think that will be satisfactory,” the boy replied. “Then if I desire to draw against it or add to it I can do so.”
“Very good, my dear sir. You show the proper spirit. Many young men would wish to spend the amount at once.”
“I believe I have learned the value of money, sir,” said Jack, quietly, while Dick laughed and said.
“H’m! I am afraid I would have done just what the president hints at. Perhaps I have not learned the value of money from having so much of it.”
The money was left to the boy’s credit and he was supplied with a bank book and blank checks, feeling quite proud at having so much money as it would give him an opportunity to help his mother as well as to pay his bills at the Academy.
“You did not expect to get this, did you, Jack?” asked Dick.
“No, but I am glad to get it just the same. It means a good deal to me, Dick, although I suppose you regard it as a mere trifle.”
“Well, not so much after all,” laughed Dick, “but, come on. I want to stop at the office of the Riverton News. I furnish them with school items now and then and this is the day before publication. You might tell the editor of your experience yesterday. I have no doubt that he will regard it as a bit of valuable news. He does not get much.”
“I would like to see him at any rate,” Jack returned. “I always did like to go into a newspaper office.”
The newspaper office was down the street a short distance and on the opposite side from the bank and in a decidedly less pretentious building, being in a little two-story wooden affair which looked fully a hundred years old and as if it might fall down at any moment.