“Butchie really found it,” Davey said. “He found it in your trash heap one day early this summer.”
“Yes, but Buick really deserves the credit,” Janie intervened, “because if he hadn’t discovered the hiding place, Butchie would never have given it up, never.”
Mrs. Saunders kissed them all and cried a little, and then she called them into her kitchen. There was a basket of fruit on the table and she gave Butch a big shiny banana. Then she went to the icebox and cut the bones out of two pieces of steak. “Here,” she said, wrapping them up. “Give these to Buick. He’s a fine smart dog. I want each one of you children to have something too.” She opened her purse and before they could say a word she had given each child a crisp, new one-dollar bill. “Oh, thank you, Mrs. Saunders,” Janie said. “But Mom will never let us keep this. I know she won’t.”
“Oh, yes she will!” Mrs. Saunders assured her. “You’ll never know what it means to me to have my mother’s jewelry again, and you were very good children and you’ll need some money for buying firecrackers pretty soon.” They thanked her again and hurried home.
Sure enough, Mom was distressed about so much money, but Grandma said, “Don’t feel badly about it, Elizabeth. Mrs. Saunders was happy to get her purse back and it gave her a lot of satisfaction to be able to reward the children. People should be allowed to be a little extravagant once in a while. It’s good for them.”
“What are you going to do with your fortune?” Daddy inquired. Janie shook her head. “I don’t know yet,” she answered, “except that I want to spend it all at once and not let it disappear in little dribbles of nickels and dimes.”
“I’m going to buy some ‘minnies’ for casting,” Bill said. “I’ve been looking at some in the hardware store.”
James declared he was going to spend his for a huge model airplane he had long coveted, and Davey said he was going to give his to Butch. “Because Butch really found the purse,” he said, “and all he got was a banana.”
“Don’t be silly,” said Janie, “What would a monkey do with a dollar bill?” But Daddy gave him a hug and said, “That’s right, Davey. You take good care of Butch.”
By four o’clock Aunt Claire’s car came around the bend in the road and sharp-eyed James called out, “Someone is with her, a girl in a white dress. I can see her from here.”