“Bring me somethin’ back, Larry?” begged his little sister Mary.
“Take me with you!” exclaimed James, who always wanted to be on the go.
“Are you really going anywhere, Larry?” asked Lucy, the sister who had been cured of a serious spinal ailment by a celebrated doctor, through Larry’s suggestion.
“No,” he answered, as he kissed them all. “I’m going to stay right here—for a while, anyhow.”
“Then why the valise?” asked his mother.
“That,” said Larry, with pretended solemnity, “is all that remains of a million dollars.”
“A million dollars!” exclaimed Lucy.
“In big bills,” added Jerry. “Thousand-dollar bills. Enough to buy this big apartment house in which we live, several times over. Enough to do so many things that it would make your head swim to think of them. And this is all that’s left.”
“Oh, it’s a fairy story! I know it is!” cried James, who was fond of strange tales. “Tell it to me, Larry.”
So Larry did, but it was a different story from the one the small lad had expected, though it was none the less interesting.