“Five dollars! Every month, and to spend on yourself?” cried Jan, to whom this seemed a fortune.
“Oh, you little goose!” said Sydney, almost ready to laugh at her simplicity. “What do you suppose that is among the boys I go with? But don’t you worry. I’m sorry I told.”
“Do you think it would be right to pay this man and not let Uncle Howard know?” said conscientious Jan. “You see, Sydney, I think fathers and mothers ought to be told things.”
“Don’t you think it makes a difference whether it would do harm or good?” asked Sydney. “Father would be angry and send me off, and I can’t see what good that would do. He is too busy to try to understand. And I’ve had enough of it. If I could pay up now I would keep clear of this sort of thing forever. It has worried me ever since September.”
Jan was thinking rapidly as Sydney spoke, and it seemed to her loving heart like sealing the boy’s fate to send him away from home, where it was her favorite dream to root him more closely. So she said: “I will lend you money, Syd. I have some that papa gave me to buy Christmas gifts for the children, but you can pay it back, perhaps, before then. It’s five dollars. Do you need so much?”
Sydney laughed outright, though it was a melancholy and kindly laugh. “Five dollars, you blessed innocent!” he said. “It is about a tenth of what I owe.”
Jan gasped. “Gwen has money saved,” she said with a sudden inspiration. “Tell her. She’ll be glad to help you out. And it will make you better friends,” she added in her thoughts.
“Indeed I won’t tell Gwen,” cried Sydney. “I’ll tell you what I will do. I’ll borrow your five and try to get him to take it on account, and wait before he tells father.”
“And then, if I were you, I’d try to earn the money to pay up,” cried Jan, with another inspiration.
“How could I?” asked Sydney.