“Money!” Mack exploded. “Who said anything about money? Government gives ’em to you on time.”
“But time has a way of rolling around,” Mr. Lawson had replied quietly.
“Oh, the Government wouldn’t be hard on you,” Mack laughed. “Look at us. We’ve got a washing machine and a buzz-saw, and a motor to run ’em, a tractor, plow, harrow, everything, and all on time.”
“Yes, I know,” had come in the same slow, quiet tones. “And I know the Government won’t be hard on you. Still it will want its money, same as any loaning agency. It just has to be that way.
“This week,” Mr. Lawson went on after a moment, “I received a letter from an old friend of mine. Few years back he secured a government loan on his home. He didn’t keep up the interest and payments. They took it from him. Now he’s unhappy about it. But people who borrow must pay. That’s why we’re trying not to borrow.”
“And we won’t, not if we can help it.” Lawrence set his will hard as he now followed those dark brown creatures over the ice.
“Johnny,” he said suddenly. “Do you think father should let us use traps?”
“I—I don’t know,” Johnny replied slowly. “But that, for us, is not the question. Ours is, ‘Have we a right to urge him to let us use them?’
“And the answer is, ‘No,’” he chuckled. “So we’ll have to trust our little old otters to lead the way. When they find Mr. Silver Fox for us we’ll have to grab him.”
“If only one of those trapping fellows doesn’t get him first,” Lawrence said, wrinkling his brow.