"What else can you do?"
"I don't know," said the boy.
"Have you got any money?"
"Only a few pennies. I hadn't got my wages yet."
"I see. And will you go and ask Master Albert for them?"
"No," said Samuel quickly. "I'll never do that!"
"Then you'll go out and hunt for a job again, I suppose? Or will you
start out on that starving scheme again?"
"Don't!" cried the boy wildly. "Let me think!"
"Come! Don't be a summer-boarder!" exclaimed the other. "You've got
the professor's own warrant for it, haven't you? And you've got a free
field before you--you can help yourself to anything you want in
Lockmanville, and the bulls won't dare to lift a finger! You'll be a
fool if you let go of such a chance."
"But it's wrong!" protested Samuel. "You know it's wrong!"
"Humph!" laughed Charlie. And he shut the top of the cracker box with
a bang and rose up. "You sleep over it," he said. "You'll be hungry
to-morrow morning."
"That won't make any difference!" cried the boy.
"Maybe not," commented the other; and then he added with a grin:
"Don't you ask me for grub. For that would be charity; and if you're
really one of the unfit, it's not for me to interfere with nature!"
And so all the next day Samuel sat in Charlie's room and faced the
crackers and cheese and the pot of jam, and wrestled with the problem.
He knew what it would mean to partake of the food, and Charlie knew
what it would mean also; and feeling certain that Samuel would not
partake upon any other terms, he left the covers off the food, so that
the odors might assail the boy's nostrils.
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