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came. It's in the hall closet and your change is on the hall table. It was two dollars and forty cents."
    "Oh, thank you, Susie," said Mr. Porter.
    Billy's daddy went to the hall closet and picked up the box. He carried it upstairs to his studio. Without examining the label, he pried off the lid. There, to his amazement, were two dozen cakes of Surething Flea Soap.
    "What the mischief is this!" exclaimed Mr. Porter. "Who is sending me two dozen cakes of flea soap? Two dollars and forty cents' worth of flea soap!"
    Then he remembered something that Billy had said about soap. Something about soap and a football. This was a pretty mess! The very idea! Two dollars and forty cents' worth of flea soap! What did Billy intend doing with the stuff?
    Mr. Porter went to the head of the stairs.
    "William!" he called.
    "Yes, Daddy," replied Billy.
    "Come up here," said Daddy.

6. Twenty-Four Cakes of Flea Soap

    Billy knew that something was the matter. Daddy hadn't called him William since the day last spring when he broke the bathroom window with his baseball. He wondered, as he climbed the two flights of stairs, what he had done that would make Daddy call him William.
    As he entered his daddy's room, he saw him standing over a large box.
    "William!" said Daddy in a very stern voice, "do you know anything about this soap?"
    "Soap?" said Billy.
    "Yes. Soap," said Mr. Porter, "Flea soap. In fact, twenty-four cakes of flea soap. Two dollars and forty cents' worth of flea soap. Plus the worst smell in forty-eight states."
    "Oh!" said Billy. "Oh! That's our soap."
    "Our soap!" exclaimed Daddy. "What are we going to do with it?"
    "No, Daddy," said Billy. "You don't understand. It belongs to our football team."
    "Well, what I do understand is that I paid two dollars and forty cents for it," said Daddy. "So if it belongs to your football team, I would like to have the money returned to me." And then he added, "Promptly."
    "Oh, sure, Daddy. Sure!" said Billy. "I'll call a meeting of the team tomorrow. And I'll bring the money home with me."
    And with this Billy dashed for the head of the stairs.
    "Hold on a minute," said his daddy. "What in the name of all smells does the team intend doing with this flea soap?"
    Billy came back. "Why, we're going to sell
it, Daddy, and get a football. We sell it for twenty cents a cake. Then we get the football."
    "Well, get my two dollars and forty cents," said Mr. Porter. "And get rid of this soap as quickly as possible. I'll put it out in the garage. A gas mask should go with each cake."
    The following day Billy met Betsy on the way to school.
    "Hi, Betsy!" Billy called out. "Our soap has come."
    "What soap?" said Betsy.
    "Why, the flea soap that the team is going to sell to get the football," said Billy.
    "Oh!" replied Betsy. "That soap!"
    When the children reached the school, Billy sent word around that there would be a meeting of the football team at recess.
    After the opening exercises Miss Pancake put some arithmetic problems on the blackboard and gave each child a piece of paper. Everyone set to work and the room was very quiet. In a few moments Sally, who sat across the aisle from Billy, looked up with a very strange expression on her face. She sniffed. And then she sniffed again.
    In a few moments she tiptoed up to the front
of the room and spoke to Miss Pancake in a very low voice.
    Miss Pancake said, "Just sit here, at this table by the door."
    Sally returned to her seat and got her paper. In a moment she was quietly working at the table by the door.
    Very shortly Mary Lou, who sat across the aisle on the other side of Billy, raised her hand.
    "What is it, Mary Lou?" asked Miss Pancake.
    "May I please sit by the window?" said Mary Lou. "I think I need a little more air."
    "Certainly," replied Miss Pancake. And Mary Lou carried her paper over to the desk by the window.
    In a few minutes Ellen, who was sitting behind Billy, raised her head from her work. She put her handkerchief to her nose and held