“And by the way,” said Tom Lucas, taking a ticket out of his pocket, “here is a railroad ticket I bought the other day; you’d better use it, old fellow. I shall never want it—that is, if we are not back in time for you.”
The boys knew Jerry worked hard for every cent he had, and Tom would have felt mean if he had let a ride to which he had invited him be an expense.
The first thing he did when Susan came into the room was to give her the note intrusted to him; and Susan, understanding only too well what it meant, delivered it without any delay to Mamie Smythe.
Jerry’s call was always a treat to his friends; and to-night, Marion coming with them, he had an evening the pleasure of which, in spite of what followed, he did not soon forget.
When it came time for him to leave, he saw with surprise that he could only by running catch his train, and, as the boys had not come back for him, he hurried away.
He found when he reached Atherton that the study hour had already passed, and, going to his room, he was met with,— 111
“I say, Jerry; Uncle John don’t expect you to go stealing off on sleigh-rides without leave. Give an account of yourself.”
“The party had leave, and when that is given, Uncle John don’t trouble himself to single out every boy, and call him up to ask if he had his permission to go. It’s all right.”
But, in spite of this assertion, Jerry began to have suspicions that, as the boys had failed to come for him to return with them, it might, after all, be not quite in order; and with these doubts he did not find committing his lesson an easy task.