"Did he seem discontented or unhappy?"
"No."
"You promised to help him?"
"What I said was, 'We are going to do something for you, Isaac'"
"Something! That commits us to nothing in particular. Was it your idea, Mary Jane, to make him an allowance?"
"Yes."
"There you cut into our insufficient income again. I don't see how we can afford it with all these expenses heaping up on us; really I don't."
"But we must give him something; I promised it."
George thought a moment and then said:
"This is the end of September and I sha'nt want this straw hat that I have been wearing all summer. Suppose you give him that. A good straw hat is 'something.'"