Free The Challengers by Grace Livingston Hill Page A

needn't borrow Barney's car. I'll get a car," said Stephen desperately. "I know where there's a car I can hire."
    "Well, we'll see," laughed Sylvia, waving her dirty little hand gracefully after him. "Hurry now, Mother's nice boy, or you'll be late."
    He walked back toward the college with great heaviness upon him. Hire! Hire! Hire! He had not only arranged to stay over the evening when he knew he ought to go home and help his mother, but he had agreed to rent a dress suit and an automobile, and he hadn't a cent with which to do it. He hadn't a cent with which to take the train home as far as that was concerned. He would have to hike it and trust to getting a lift now and then on the way. He would have to either borrow money from some of the fellows or else charge these things to the college, and would they stand for it? He almost groaned as he walked along in the low light of the setting sun. When he reached his room, he dropped wearily facedown upon his bed like a tired, naughty little boy and hid his face in the pillow. While he lay there, a bit from an old nursery game began to jingle through his brain:
    Â 
    Heavy, heavy hangs over your head,
    What shall the owner do to redeem it?
    Â 
    What was it that was hanging heavy over his head? His self-respect? His good common sense that he had forfeited? Of course, it didn't mean a thing, but why did it have to keep ringing over and over again? And there was the clock striking! He must get up and get himself together. Somehow this evening must be gone through.
    Â 
    Heavy, heavy hangs over your head,
    What shall the owner do to redeem it?
    Â 
    Forfeits. That was what the fool game had been called. What was he forfeiting by pleasing Sylvia this evening? Anything worthwhile? Anything he couldn't redeem?
    And did he really want to please Sylvia any longer, anyway? That was the question. But of course, this once, he had to. After tonight he would be sure, that was one thing certain. Yes, after tonight he would be sure .

CHAPTER SIX
    Phyllis had just closed her furniture sale and seen the last of the things piled into the truck at the door when that telephone call came. After she had hung up the receiver, she found herself trembling from head to foot, just why she wasn't sure. Partly because she had been very angry with her beloved brother and had spoken much plainer to him about the family troubles than she knew her mother would have approved. Partly because of a hidden, underlying fear that she had not named until now when she stood and faced it. It was that girl that was troubling her!
    It was not just that Stephen was taking a girl to a college dance. Boys in college always did that, she presumed. The Challenger family had been brought up with no conscientious scruples against the ordinary accepted amusements of the day. They had no opinions either for or against dancing. One was respectable, of course, in the way one did things, anything, and that was all. But what was there about the way Steve had said "a girl" that had made his sister feel uncomfortable about her? Of course the boys took the girls of the neighborhood to their parties. That was to be expected. And it was also to be expected that Steve would have a girl, a nice girl of course, someday. It was time he should. Why, this girl might not be any special girl at all, just a girl he had met and invited. It might not mean a thing. Then why did she feel as if he had been reluctant to mention her, as if he were almost half-ashamed about it?
    No, that must be imagination after all, for when he had first mentioned her he had been quite insistent that she was more important than a lot of other things, important enough to make an expensive phone call in the middle of the day and demand money from an impoverished family.
    Well, that of course was silly. She must get to work and put such thoughts out of her head. Perhaps she wouldn't mention the girl when she told Mother. It might worry her, too. But, no, that would not