Karl thought a moment, and then said: "But he won't know anything about it."
"Oh, you're too sharp!" exclaimed his mother, with a laugh. "I wasn't talking to you, anyhow."
"Little pitchers have big ears," said Aunt Ruth, echoing her sister's laugh.
And so the matter was pushed aside, neither mother nor aunt imagining that the bright and beautiful boy they both loved so tenderly had received a lesson in dishonesty not soon to be forgotten.
"I do believe," said Mrs. Omdorff, not long afterward, as she sat counting over some money, "that Poole has given me the wrong change."
Karl was in the room and heard her remark.
"Let me see," she added, going over the money again. "Two and a half, three, four and three-quarters. It's a fact; I gave him a ten-dollar bill, and here are four and three-quarters change."
"What did the goods amount to?" asked her sister.
"There were eleven yards of muslin at eighteen; that's a dollar and ninety-eight cents. Two yards of silk at a dollar and a half, and an eighth of a yard of velvet one dollar—making just five dollars and ninety-eight cents. If it had come to six dollars, my right change would have been four; but he has given me four and three-quarters."
Then, in a tone of satisfaction, she added: "I'm that much richer, you see, Ruth."