"Pa," suggested Loammi, insinuatingly, "couldn't you let me have a five-dollar bill to carry round with me, so that I could show it to my friends? They would think more of me."
"How long do you think it would remain unbroken?" asked his father, shrewdly.
"Oh, ever so long."
"I don't wish to try the experiment. Your friends will respect you without that. They know that you are the son of a man who is well off."
"No, they don't think so, when they see that I am always short of money and hard up."
"Then let them think what they please. If they thought you had money they would want to borrow it, or urge you to spend it on them."
So Loammi failed in his effort to obtain a larger allowance.
One day—it was Friday—he particularly wanted to use some money and was without a penny. Under these circumstances it occurred to him that his despised cousin was well supplied with cash, and might be induced to accommodate him with a loan.
Scott was rather surprised when, as he was going out after supper, Loammi joined him.
"Are you going out for a walk?" he asked, in an unusually gracious tone.