CHAPTER I
OFF FOR A SLEIGH-RIDE
“What is the matter, Dave? You look rather mystified.”
“I am mystified, Laura,” replied Dave Porter. “I have a letter here that I can’t understand at all.”
“Whom is it from?” questioned Laura Porter, as she came closer to her brother, who was ensconced in the largest easy-chair the Wadsworth library contained.
“It’s from a shopkeeper in Coburntown, Mr. Wecks, the shoe-dealer. He wants to know which pair of shoes I have decided to keep, and asks me kindly to return the pair I don’t want.”
“Well, what of that, Dave?” continued his sister, as the youth paused with a wrinkle on his forehead. “Can’t you make up your mind which pair of shoes you want to keep?”
“I certainly can not, seeing that I haven’t had any shoes from Wecks’s store,” returned Dave, with a faint smile. “I haven’t been in his place for nearly a year, and the last time I was there I bought a pair of rubbers and paid for them.”