I will come up to the field, and you'll best have it ready for me." Ned did not hear the last few words, but he had heard enough to know that Mather owed ten shillings which he had borrowed, besides a bill for cakes.

Mather had not noticed him come into the yard, for his back was toward the gate, and the noise which the boys made running about and shouting prevented him hearing the gate open and close.
"It's a beastly shame," Ned muttered to himself as he went off to school, "to borrow money from an old woman like that.

Mather must have known he couldn't pay it, for he has only a small allowance, and he is always short of money, and of course he could not expect a tip before the holidays.

He might have paid her when he came back, but as he didn't I don't see how he is to do so now, and if the old woman tells Porson there will be a row.

It's just the sort of thing would rile him most." On the next Saturday he watched with some curiosity the entry of the old woman into the field.