Quick as a flash away went the box, and out popped, like a veritable Jack-in-the-box, the head and shoulders of Jack Hennessey, who, getting very much in earnest, had forgotten his part, and let his temper run away with him.
"Take yer cat, then!" he cried, and he pulled a big black cat up through the hole in the platform, where he was standing, and flung her at Merry. And then, because his temper had suddenly cooled, he doubled himself into his place again; but not before the murmur had grown into a rushing, roaring shout, which threatened to carry Mr. Quipp's roof completely away. And somebody called out, "Fraud!"
"It isn't fraud," cried Merry, in his loudest tone. "Jack was going to show himself, though not so soon. It was only for fun and an April-fool. That's why I said I'd pay back if anybody wanted me to."
But nobody wanted him to. The first day of April was a day of jokes in Cherrythorpe. Even Mrs. Quipp, who was old enough to know better, had given Mr. Quipp cornmeal mustard on his boiled beef for dinner; and Mrs. Deacon Wilson had treated her family to a baked saw-dust pudding.
And Merry—surely Merry had fooled them all with his "Jack" and his cat.
"How about that fortune Merry's going to make, eh, neighbor?" cried Mr. Quipp, clapping Mr. Colley's shoulder. "Well, well, I don't say he won't do it some day."
Mr. Quipp was right. The little store of dimes and half-dimes helped Merry and his mother over the hard places and into smoother ways. And years after, when Merry's industry and genial ways had carried him through school, and made him a great business man, the day came when the people of the State in which he lived called him "Governor Andrew."