Aunt Rebecca rattled into quick reproach. “Now, Junior, don’t be selfish with your things. After all, it doesn’t wear your dictionary out to look up a word once in a while. You should learn...”
“And my flashlight,” Junior interrupted. “Somebody’s always taking that and running the batteries down.”
“Why, Junior,” Mrs. Gentrie said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I only borrowed it for a few minutes yesterday when I was looking at the preserves on the shelf in the cellar. I didn’t have it on for as much as a minute or a minute and a half altogether.”
“Well, somebody must have left the switch on for a while,” Junior said. “The batteries were all run down this morning.”
“Perhaps you used it last night.”
He said, “That’s the point. I couldn’t find it last night.”
“Why, I put it back in your room. I...” Her voice suddenly lost its assurance, and Junior, wise in the ways of family life, said, “You mean you intended to put it back in my room, but I suppose you left it hanging around some place.”
“I... well, perhaps I did leave it down here. I had that basket of mending, and I put it... Where did you find it, Junior?”
“In my bedroom this morning.”
“Wasn’t it there last night?”