"Say it and I'll let you know," said Bob, coolly,—so very coolly that Dick was cooled.
A timely prudence enforced a momentary silence. He forebore taking a position he might not be able to hold. "Say, boys, shall we make him take us to the grove?"
Bob smiled. Val Duke smiled, too, in his unobtrusive way, and suggested modestly, "We ought to pay extra for extra work."
"Pay him another quarter and be done with it," said Kit Pott.
Beside being good-natured, Kit didn't enjoy the stopping there in the middle of the road.
"It's mighty easy to pay out other people's money," sneered Dick, resenting it that Kit seemed going over to the enemy.
Kit's face was aflame. His father had refused him any money to contribute toward the picnic expenses, and here was Dick taunting him with it before all the girls.
"You boys teased me to come along because you didn't know where to find the nuts," said Kit.
The girls began to nudge each other, making whimpered explanations and commentaries, agreeing that is was mean in Dick to mind Kit, and Clara Hooks spoke up boldly;
"I wanted Kit to come along because he's pleasant and isn't forever quarreling."