She never asked the boys what they did with their money, but expected them to keep account in the little books she gave them; and, now and then, they showed the neat pages with pardonable pride, though she often laughed at the queer items.
All that evening Jack & Co.

worked busily, for when Frank came in he good-naturedly ordered some pale-pink cards for Annette, and ran to the store to choose the right shade, and buy some packages for the young printer also.
"What _do_ you suppose he is in such a pucker for ?" whispered Jill, as she set up the new name, to Frank, who sat close by, with one eye on his book and one on her.
"Oh, some notion.

He's a queer chap; but I guess it isn't much of a scrape, or I should know it.

He's so good-natured he's always promising to do things for people, and has too much pluck to give up when he finds he can't.

Let him alone, and it will all come out soon enough," answered Frank, who laughed at his brother, but loved him none the less for the tender heart that often got the better of his young head.
But for once Frank was mistaken; the mystery did not come out, and Jack worked like a beaver all that week, as orders poured in when Jill and Annette showed their elegant cards; for, as everybody knows, if one girl has a new thing all the rest must, whether it is a bow on the top of her head, a peculiar sort of pencil, or the latest kind of chewing-gum.
Little play did the poor fellow get, for every spare minute was spent at the press, and no invitation could tempt him away, so much in earnest was our honest little Franklin about paying his debt.