“Suppose, then, we have a cake sale,” was the suggestion by the eldest one of the party. That was at once vetoed, as more properly belonging to our mothers and grandmothers.
“I tell you what, girls!” ejaculated Jessie, “let us make candy; get all the orders we can and supply our customers. We can make lots of money that way.”
“Yes, if we can get the customers,” added Hattie, “I thought maybe we could get up an entertainment, and so I brought a book containing a colloquy in three parts, which will just take in all of us. There are eight characters, so it would fit exactly.”
“Good for you, Hattie,” was the quick reply, and the bright eyes and excited manner of each of the scholars showed that such enthusiasm could not fall to result in success.
Later a satisfactory programme was arranged, consisting of music, recitations, tableaux and the above-mentioned colloquy. The entertainment was to be given in the parlors of one of the scholars, and the tickets for young and old were to be offered for the sum of twenty-five cents each.
My! how the girls worked, not alone in the necessary preparation for their part of the programme, but in the sale of tickets, which were disposed of rapidly.
At last the much-looked-for night had come, and never did stars seem more brilliant, or moonlight more beautiful. Such a crowd! Long before the time for showing the tableaux, which were to open the entertainment, the parlors and halls and even the stairs were full. A man was stationed at the door to receive the tickets and any money which might be offered.
But was it any wonder that little Theodore Vandervoort, who is connected with one of the younger classes of the Sunday-school, found himself surrounded by so many bigger and older people, that he was not seen? or that the money he had expected to give at the door should not be taken?
What a temptation this now presented! His father and mother would never know. The twenty-five cents would buy a great deal of candy, or the new ball he wanted so much, or a box of figs, or several bananas, of which he was very fond. But no, Theodore was an honest boy and would therefore scorn to use money which was not his own. This twenty-five cents had been given to him to pay for the entertainment he was now enjoying, and he would not expend it for any other purpose. So the following morning, before he entered school, he paid his debt, personally going to the house of the teacher who had charge of the entertainment and, with a few words of explanation, leaving the money.