“Going to give us a chance to win a prize, or something,” pursued Bobby.
“Oh! how do you know?” Jess showed more interest now.
“Why, I heard Mr. Sharp say, as he was helping Mrs. Kerrick into Colonel Swayne’s auto:
“‘The girls of Central High should be delighted, Mrs. Kerrick—and very grateful to you, indeed. Two hundred dollars! And a chance for any smart girl to win it!’—just like that. Now, Jess, you and I are both smart girls, aren’t we?” demanded Bobby, roguishly.
“We think we are, at any rate,” returned Jess, more eagerly. “Two hundred dollars! Oh! wouldn’t that be fine!”
“It would buy a lot of candy and ice-cream sodas,” chuckled Bobby.
But to herself Jess Morse thought: “And it would mean the difference, for mother and me, between penury and independence! Oh, dear me! is it something that I can do to earn two hundred dollars?”
And she listened to Bobby’s surmises about the mysterious prize without taking in half what the younger girl was saying. Two hundred dollars! And she and her mother did not have a cent. She looked up and saw the lights of the butter and egg store just ahead, and sighed.
CHAPTER III—WHAT MR. CHUMLEY NEEDED
“Well, old Molly-grubs, I’ve got to leave you here,” said Bobby Hargrew, pinching the arm of Jess. “You’re certainly down in the mouth to-night. I never saw you so before. I’d like to know what the matter is with you,” complained Bobby, and ran off in the rain.