"Not much," she said.
"Maybe you're right." He had one of the brief boy-moods of self-abasement.
Leila changed quickly. "I'll bid for you," she said coyly.
He laughed and looked up, surprised at this earliest indication of the feminine. "What would you give?" he asked.
"Well, about twenty-five cents."
He laughed. "I may improve, Leila, and the price go up. Let us go and learn to skate—you must teach me."
"Of course," said Leila, "but you will soon learn. It's hard at first."
At lunch, on Christmas day, John had thanked his uncle for the skates in the formal way which Ann liked and James Penhallow did not. He said, "I am very greatly obliged for the skates. They appear to me excellent."
"What a confoundedly civil young gentleman," thought Penhallow. "I have been thinking you must learn to skate. The pond has been swept clear of snow."
"Thank you," returned the boy, with a grin which his uncle thought odd.