"I deny it," said Laura briskly.
"Chet! not careless?"
"Only thoughtless."
"What is the difference?"
"Academic, or moral?" demanded Mother Wit, looking at him slyly.
"Oh, well, it doesn't pay to split hairs with you," declared her father, pinching a warm cheek until it was rosier than ever. "But what's the big idea, as Chet himself would say?"
"Why, now, Pa Belding----"
"Out with it! What do you want me to do?"
"I--I thought if you'd make Chet pay only half of the fifty dollars, that perhaps you lost----"
"Well?" he growled, in apparent indignation still.