How happy he was! How tightly he held on to the bright half dollar in his hand! Wouldn’t his mother open her eyes when he gave it to her! How glad it would make her! He had never held so much money in his hand before; and he had earned it. He felt more like a great man than he had ever felt before. He had done a big thing—even bigger than he had hoped when the fish first bit the hook.
Half a dollar! David wondered if any other little boy ever earned so much money in one day.
“Here’s the Journal.”
III.
“See what I have got, mother!” said David, as he ran into the house.
“Hush, David; you will wake up the baby,” replied his mother. “What have you got?”
“Half a dollar,” answered David, as he put the money into his mother’s hand.
“Why, where did you get it?”
“I earned it, mother,” said David, in a whisper, lest he should wake little Mary. “I caught a big pickerel in the river, and I sold it to Mr. Lee, and he gave me half a dollar for it.”