Billy had the most money, nearly twenty dollars in all. He had not saved a penny, but becoming desperate as the Christmas season advanced, he had sold nearly all his American clothes to various susceptible Japanese youth of the town. One paid him two dollars for a sailor hat. A young man of eighteen years now wore the twelve-year-old Billy’s short trousers under a kimono. Three of his shirts had been purchased by Miss Summer, which she proudly wore on festival occasions. Even his suspenders had proved marketable, and also his heavy shoes and rubbers. When he had asked his mother’s permission to “give” his clothes away she had laughed and told him that by the time he ceased to wear kimonos again he would be too large for the American clothes he now possessed, and so had lightly given her consent. But she was quite distressed when she learned he had sold them. Billy, however, was equal to the occasion, and soon persuaded her that he had done right. “It would have been wrong to make the proud Japanese accept second-hand American clothes as charity.” So Billy was now rich, and accordingly avaricious. He wished he had a hundred dollars instead of twenty dollars; then he could buy cameras and guns and such things which cost plenty of money, but since there was such a large family, and since the Japanese had to have presents at New-Year’s as well, he couldn’t afford costly ones. In any event he wanted them all to know that he was not going to spend more than half his money, as he was saving the other half for something for himself—he wouldn’t tell what.
Ten dollars was Taro’s total, but he had in addition an unopened bank half full of sen (pennies). He had been saving all summer, and would have had a larger sum, but he had generously contributed two yen to the support of an old coolie whose sons were at the war and whom his mother was befriending. Billy, too, had made a like contribution, though he said nothing about it now. Taro, however, could not forget that two yen.
“If I had thad two yen more I could buy fine present for you, Billy, but I have only liddler got—I gotter buy for girls first. Mebbe I buy you something if I have aeny left.”
“Well, you’d just better,” snorted Billy, “and you know what I want.”
Taro grunted discontentedly, but made no rash promises.
“How much have you got?” Billy asked Plum Blossom, who had her money arranged in a neat row.
“Three yen and—” she began counting the sen again.
“And you, Iris?”
“Jus’ same Plum Blossom,” said Iris, who had not bothered to count.
“Why, no, you silly, you haven’t. I’ll count for you.” Iris possessed three yen and seventy-five sen, about two dollars and a quarter.