“And the fair people want me to sail the aeroplane again?” continued Bud jubilantly.
“That’s what was voted.”
Bud sat up on the edge of the bed, his eyes snapping and his face wreathed in smiles.
“I guess Mr. Elder must have changed his mind,” Bud commented. “He told me I ‘ought to be ashamed of myself.’”
“He has. We’re all agreed. And we’ve agreed, too, that you’re to have twenty-five dollars a day for your work.”
The boy straightened up as if he had been struck. From smiles, his face became set, and finally rebellious. He picked at the bed clothes a moment, and then said:
“I’m sorry they did that. I’d have done it for nothing to help out. But when it comes to a price, I’m worth just as much as Mr. Dare. If they want to pay me, it’s fifty dollars a day.”
“You won’t do for twenty-five dollars a day what you’ll do for nothing?”
“That’s it. I said I wouldn’t. That’s all there is to it.”
“You refuse,” said the lawyer, growing red in the face.