The Bobbsey Twins at Meadow Brook | Page 9

me this short cut to your place, spoke about an

adopted boy, Frank Kennedy, who used to play with the children."
"Oh, I'm much obliged to you," said Mr. Mason, after a pause. "Yes,
Frank did look after the girls some. That was he who just ran down the
road. But he did better at home than he's doing in my office.
"What do you mean?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, wondering why it was that
Mr. Mason had so severely shaken the boy who had run away.
"Well, I mean that Frank just lost twenty dollars for me," proceeded the
lumber man.
"Twenty dollars! How was that?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"I left him in charge of my office, while I was out on some other
business," went on the lumber dealer, "and a strange man came in and
bought two dollars worth of expensive boards. Frank gave them to him,
and the man took them away with him, as they were not very large, or
heavy to carry."
"Two dollars--I thought you said twenty!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey.
"So I did. Wait until I tell you all. As I said, Frank sold this strange
man two dollars worth of boards. The man gave Frank a twenty dollar
bill, and Frank gave him back eighteen dollars in change."
"Well, wasn't that right?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, with a smile. "Two
dollars from twenty leave eighteen--or it used to when I went to
school."
"That part is all right," Mr. Mason said, bitterly, "but the fact is that the
twenty dollar bill Frank took from the strange man is no good. It is bad
money, and no one but a child would take it. It's a bill that was gotten
out by the Confederate states during the Civil War, and of course their
money isn't any better than waste-paper now. I don't see how Frank was
fooled that way. I wouldn't have been if I had been in the office."
"Perhaps the boy never saw a Confederate bill before," suggested Mr.

Bobbsey.
"No matter, he should have known that it wasn't good United States'
money!" declared Mr. Mason. "By his carelessness to-day he lost me
twenty dollars; the eighteen dollars in my good money that he gave the
man in change, and the two dollars worth of boards. And all I have to
show for it is that worthless piece of paper!" and Mr. Mason took from
his pocket a crumpled bill.
Mr. Bobbsey looked at it carefully.
"Yes, that's one of the old Confederate States' bills all right," he said,
"and it isn't worth anything, except as a curiosity."
"It cost me twenty dollars, all right," said Mr. Mason, with a sour look
on his face. "I can't see how Frank was so foolish as to be taken in by
it."
"Well, the poor boy knew no better, and probably he is sorry enough
now," said Mr. Bobbsey.
"I guess he's sorry enough!" exclaimed Mr. Mason, bitterly. "I gave
him a good shaking, as he is too big to whip. I shook him and scolded
him."
"Well, almost anyone, not very familiar with money, might have made
that mistake," spoke Mr. Bobbsey. "This Confederate bill looks very
much like some of ours, and a person in a hurry might have been fooled
by it."
"Oh, nonsense!" broke in Mr. Mason. "There was no excuse for Frank
being fooled as he was. I won't listen to any such talk! He lost me
twenty dollars and he'll have to make it up to me, somehow."
"But how can he, when he has run away?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, and he
felt very sorry for Frank, who was not much older than Bert. Mr.
Bobbsey knew how grieved he would be if something like that
happened to his son.

"Yes, he pretended to run away," said Mr. Mason, "but he'll soon run
back again."
"How do you know?" Mr. Bobbsey wanted to know. "Did he ever run
away before?"
"No, he never did," admitted Mr. Mason, "but he'll have to run back
because he has nowhere to run to. He can't get anything to eat, he has
no money, and he can't find a place to sleep. Of course he'll come back!
"And when he does come back," Mr. Mason went on, "I'll make him
work doubly hard to pay back that twenty dollars. I can't afford to lose
that much money."
"But it was an accident; a mistake that anyone might have made," said
Mr. Bobbsey again.
"Nonsense!" cried the other lumber man. "I'll make Frank Kennedy pay
for his mistake!"
"Perhaps the strange man did not mean to give him the Confederate
bill," went on Bert's father. "Some persons carry those old Southern
bills as souvenirs, or pocket-pieces, and this man might have paid his
out by mistake. I