“Why I wouldn’t tell—I don’t carry tales,” Elizabeth Ann declared indignantly, “but aren’t you going to tell Mr. Bostwick—or your father?”
“Why should I?” asked Catherine, though her face turned red. “I’m not sure I left it unfastened. I can’t be perfectly sure some of the boys didn’t go to the corncrib after I left the candy there.”
Doris almost choked on her last bit of ice cream in her hurry to tell Catherine what she thought of her.
“Why Catherine Gould, you’re telling a lie,” she cried. “I mean you will be telling a lie, if you don’t explain to your father about the corncrib door. He thinks Roger left it open, and Roger has to work for him every Saturday.”
“I am not telling a lie, and don’t you say such things, Doris Mason!” stormed Catherine. “Maybe I didn’t leave the door open. Anyway, it won’t hurt Roger Calendar to work Saturdays—my father says idleness is bad for anyone. And Roger is careless—one day last summer he left the pasture bars down and Mr. Bostwick’s cows got in the garden and ate almost the entire first crop of peas.”
Someone struck a chord on the piano just then—that was to attract the attention of everyone in the room. Elizabeth Ann peeked around a tall man and saw that it was Roger who sat at the school piano.
“We’re going to auction the cakes that are left,” announced Mr. Fundy the principal. “We have six fine cakes left and they won’t keep till our next fair, so we’ll sell them to the highest bidder.”
Roger played softly while the cakes were being auctioned off and they were soon sold. Aunt Grace bought a banana layer cake, much to the pleasure of Elizabeth Ann and Doris, who liked banana cake. And when the last cake had been sold and the money added to that already counted, Mr. Fundy had another announcement to make.
“I’m glad to be able to tell you,” he said, “that everything in all the booths has been sold; and we have cleared for our Christmas fund for poor and sick children, exactly $160. I call that pretty fine for a country school like ours.”
All the people clapped and Roger broke into a rollicking march on the piano. With $160, Miss Owen explained to Elizabeth Ann who stood near her, they could buy more than they had planned, and not a child would have to be left off the list.