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 nothing else but just that was worth eating. First it's sugar, and then it's sausage, and then it's something different again. And sometimes it ain't anything at all. You don't hardly miss it that way."

Chippy slipped still farther forward on his seat and felt for his cap. He glanced at Christy's unfolded note.

Christy got out an envelope and dipped his pen in the ink. Then he let it rest over the edge of the desk, where it dried.

He picked up the roll of money.

"You must have been collecting this for some time."

"All summer," said Chippy. "There's a good deal of it. Lin and Miss Loretta had just begun to talk about where they would carry it when you first began to take up money here. I told them about it and I told them that, so long as this was where I worked, I thought you'd ought to get it. So after a bit they decided on that."

Chippy plainly felt that the bestowal of Lin's patronage was no light thing.

Christy agreed with him.

"I'm very much obliged to you," he said heartily. "This will help me along splendidly. Let's put it in at once."

He pulled at the twine string, which was tied in a very secure knot, and laid open the hoard.

It was made up of all the original pennies and nickels; there was also one dime among them. The sum total was $2.11.