"Two points--Jerry only needed two points. And she lost ten as a punishment about the snowman. Don't you see--she's really the winner?" Uncle Johnny had listened to the story with careful gravity; inwardly he was tortured with the desire to laugh. But he could not affront these girls so seriously bent on keeping unsullied that pure white thing they called honor. "Oh, youth--youth!" he thought, loving them the more for their precious earnestness. "And--it's _such_ a mix-up, we don't know what to do. If I knew who had given the prize I'd go straight to him," exclaimed Ginny bravely. Uncle Johnny straightened his immaculately gray-trousered legs and laid his straw hat down on the grass. "If that'll help things any--I'm he," he explained with a little embarrassment. "You? You? Really--Uncle Johnny?" came in an excited chorus. "Yes, me," with a fine scorn for grammar. "I'm the one who's to blame for all the carrots," pinching Gyp's cheek. "But you _have_ sort of mixed things up." "But we _had_ to win that basketball game," cried Gyp, "and we couldn't unless Ginny played." "Yes--you had to win the basketball game," he nodded with a judicious appreciation. "You see, Lincoln got the cup for the series." "And Jerry paid the price--yes." "For the honor of the school!" "Then--I'm afraid this is the last payment. You see, girlies, everything we do--no matter what it is--is fraught with consequences. If I were to go over to yonder lake and throw in a pebble--what would we see? Little ripples circling wider and wider--further and further. That's like life--our everyday actions are so many pebbles--we have to accept the ripples. It's sometimes hard--but I guess Jerry sees the truth." There was no doubt from the expression of Jerry's face but that she saw the truth--Uncle Johnny's homely simile had made it very clear. "But _I_ won't take it--that wouldn't be fair." It was the new Ginny who spoke. "So it'll go to Dana King." "Yes, it will go to Dana King." Uncle Johnny was serious now. "Ginny should not have accepted Jerry's sacrifice. Girls, there's a simple little thing called 'right' that we find in our hearts if we search that's finer than even the precious honor of your school--and Gyp, you speak very truly when you say that _that_ is something you must valiantly always uphold. Now if you'll let me tell this story of yours to the committee I think it can all be straightened out--and we'll feel better all around." "And I'm glad it's Dana King," exclaimed Peggy Lee. "Garrett said he had had to give up his plans to go to college next fall and he was terribly disappointed and now maybe he won't have to----"