"I know you didn't," answered Mr. Carford, with a smile, "and I'm not paying you either. You stopped the horses, or you tried to stop them, Bert, to save your sister and the other girls. I understand that all right. But the horses were stopped just the same, and please take this as a little thank offering, if nothing else. Please do."
He held out the two-dollar bill, and Bert did not feel like refusing. He accepted the money with murmured thanks, and as Mr. Carford climbed into the sled, limping more than ever after his run up the hill, the aged man muttered:
"The second time a Bobbsey has been mixed up in my affairs. I wonder what will happen when the third time comes?"
Calling good-byes to the boys and girls, and again thanking them for what they had done, Mr. Carford drove off amid a jingle of bells.
"What do you s'pose he meant by saying this was the second time a
Bobbsey had been mixed up in his family affairs?" asked Charley Mason of
Bert.
"I haven't the least idea. I never knew Mr. Carford before this. I'll ask my father."
"Is that bill real?" asked one boy, referring to the money.
"It sure is," answered Bert, looking at it. "Come on to the drugstore and well spend it. That's what it's for."
"Going to treat Danny Rugg, and his crowd, too?" asked Frank Miller.
"Well, I guess Mr. Carford wanted this money to be spent on everyone on the hill, so it includes Danny," answered Bert slowly.