“Who is he, and how came you to owe him fifty cents?” inquired Mrs. Page.
“The fellow is Joe Baker,” replied Ronald. “I lost my Reader, about a month ago, and as he didn’t use his, he wanted to sell it to me, so I bought it.”
“How came you to lose your Reader?” inquired Marcus.
“I don’t know—I never could tell what became of it,” replied Ronald.
“Why didn’t you come to me or to Marcus, if you wanted a new one?” inquired Mrs. Page.
“I didn’t like to—I thought you would think I was careless, to lose my old one,” was the reply.
“And so you ran into debt, with nothing to pay, trusting I would foot the bill some time or other?” said Mrs. Page.
“I thought I could sell some maple sugar, and raise the money, but——” the family ate up nearly all the sugar, he intended to say, but did not.
“When did you agree to pay Baker?” inquired Marcus.
“Oh, he said I might pay him any time when I had the money,” replied Ronald.