"How could you? You were going about this morning after a place, and this afternoon you have been at a picnic."

"For all that, aunt, I have earned something—more than if I had been at the factory."

Mrs. Bradford stared at Ben in astonishment.

"How much did you earn, Ben?" asked Tony.

"Haven't I done well enough to earn a dollar, Tony?"

Mrs. Bradford's face assumed a more cheerful look, for a dollar in that little household would go far.

"I don't see how you found time to earn so much, Benjamin," she said.

"Now, just suppose, aunt, that I earned two dollars," said Ben, with a merry twinkle in his eyes.

This was too much for his aunt to believe.

"If supposing would make it so, I should be very glad to suppose; but it won't."