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“That,” said Aunt Sarah, “was the arrangement your mother made. I told her she didn’t need to pay a cent unless she was set on it, but she wouldn’t let you come unless I’d take some money. So I reckoned that three dollars would be about right. I’ve never taken a boarder and I don’t pretend to know. If that seems too much, though, I’d like you to tell me.”

“It doesn’t seem enough, Aunt,” replied Joe. “I’ll bet I eat more than three dollars’ worth of food, and that doesn’t leave anything for the room.”

“I wasn’t calculating to charge for the room. The room’s there and it might as well be used. I just meant to charge for what you ate, Joseph, and I guess you won’t eat more’n three dollars’ worth of food a week.”

But that was on Monday, and today was only Saturday, and Joe had a whole morning to dispose of as he liked. He had been given a fine new pair of skates Christmas before last and had learned at school that there was fair skating on the river and on one or two ponds around town. After breakfast he got his skating boots and skates out of his trunk and looked them over. The only thing missing was a new lacing, and so he went across to Main Street in search of the article. But the shoe store in which he had purchased the overshoes didn’t have a leather lacing suitable and sent him to Cummings and Wright’s, further down the street. This, he discovered, was the brilliantly-red hardware store he had noticed one day. One side of it was given over to athletic goods and when Joe entered two boys were in conversation across a counter near the door.