_SIXTY-FIVE DOLLARS._
Willie took the boys into the parsonage. They figured on it. There were
sixty-five dollars to be raised to buy the machine. The seven boys were
together, for Tommy Puffer had gone home. He said he didn’t feel like
staying, and Sammy Bantam thought he must be a little hungry.
Willie attacked the problem, sixty-five dollars. Toward that amount
they had three dollars and a half that they had intended to spend on
a present for Mr. Marble. That left just sixty-one dollars and fifty
cents to be raised. Willie ran across the street and brought Mr.
Marble. He said he had made up his mind to give the boys a book apiece,
and that each book would cost a dollar. It was rather more than he
could well afford; but as he had intended to give eight dollars for
their presents, and as he was pleased with their unselfish behavior,
he would make it ten.
“Good!” said Charley Somerset, who always saw the bright side of
things,“that makes it all, except fifty-one dollars and a half.”
“Yes,” said Sammy Bantam, “and you’re eleven feet high, lacking a
couple of yards!”
Willie next called his father in, and inquired how much his Christmas
present was to cost.
“Three and a half,” said his father.
“That’s a lot! Will you give me the money instead?”
“Yes; but I meant to give you a Life of George Stephenson, and some
other books on engineering.”
This made Willie think a moment; but seeing the walking-stick in the
corner, he said: “Mrs. Martin must have a machine, and that three and a
half makes seventeen dollars. How to get the other forty-eight is the
question.”
Mr. Blake and Mr. Marble both agreed that the boys could not raise so
much money, and should not undertake it. But Willie said there was
nobody to do it, and he guessed it would come somehow. The other boys,
when they came to church that evening, told Willie that their presents
were commuted for money also; so they had twenty-five dollars toward
the amount. But that was the end of it, and there were forty dollars
yet to come!
Willie lay awake that night, thinking. Mr. Marble’s class could not
raise the money. All the other classes had given all they could. And
the teachers would each give in their classes. And they had raised all
they could spare besides to buy nuts and candy! Good! That was just it;
they would do without candy!
At school the next morning, Willie’s white head was bobbing about
eagerly. He made every boy and girl sign a petition, asking the
teachers not to give them any nuts or candy. They all signed except
Tommy Puffer. He said it was real mean not to have any candy. They
might just as well not have any Sunday-school, or any Christmas either.
But seeing a naughty twinkle in Sammy Bantam’s eye, he waddled away,
while Sammy fired a shot after him, by remarking that, if Tommy had
been one of the Shepherds in Bethlehem, he wouldn’t have listened to
the angels till he had inquired if they had any lemon-drops in their
pockets!
That night the extra Teachers’ Meeting was held, and in walked
white-headed Willie with stunted Sammy Bantam at his heels to keep him
in countenance. When their petition was presented, Miss Belden, who sat
near Willie, said, “Well done! Willie.”
“But I protest,” said Mrs. Puffer,--who was of about as handsome a
figure as her son,--“I protest against such an outrage on the children.
My Tommy’s been a-feeling bad about it all day. It’ll break his heart
if he don’t get some candy.”
Willie was shy, but for a moment he forgot it, and, turning his
intelligent blue eyes on Mrs. Puffer, he said,--
“It will break Mrs. Martin’s heart if her children are taken away from
her.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Puffer, “I always did hear that the preacher’s boy
was the worst in the parish, and I won’t take any impudence. My son
will join the Mission School, where they aren’t too stingy to give him
a bit of candy!” And Mrs. Puffer left, and everybody was pleased.
Willie got the money; but the teachers had counted on making up
their festival mostly with cakes and other dainties, contributed by
families. So that the candy money was only sixteen dollars, and Willie
was yet a long way off from having the amount he needed. Twenty-four
dollars were yet wanting.