"Carolyn, you'd better go," said a voice from the inner side of an open window; "if you don't he may be so tried with you that he'll fall off the wall. I've told him not to get on that wall, anyway."
The girl rose and turned her book down open upon her chair. Then she sauntered slowly along over the lawn, so slowly that her brother Leander stamped his foot and called to her to hurry, for he couldn't wait.
"You'd better hurry, Carolyn," said the gentle voice at the window; "I'm so afraid he may fall."
So the girl hastened, and in a moment was leaning against the wall and asking, without much interest:
"What is it, Lee? You do shriek so!"
Leander was now standing upright. He had put his foot, encased in yellow leather, hard down on the something he had been poking at. His freckled face was red, his eyes shining with excitement.
"By George!" he exclaimed; "you can't guess in a million years what I've found! No, not in ten million! I ain't picked it up yet. I wanted you to see me pick it up. Oh, thunderation! won't I just do what I darn please with the money? You bet! Fifty dollars! Cousin Rod owes me fifty dollars! I don't s'pose he'll be so mean as to say that ad. of his has run out 'n' he don't owe me anything. Do you think he'll be so mean as that, Caro? Say!"
At this thought Leander's face actually grew pale beneath tan and freckles.
The girl was not very much impressed as yet by her brother's excitement. She was used to seeing him excited.
"You know Rod wouldn't do anything mean," she replied, calmly. "But what are you talking about? Of course it can't be—"