(Strip Number 424, Original Publication Date, 17 June 1983)
Panel 1: Having noticed that Mike still has eight dollars left, Gordon offers to let him skate some more so as to free him from the burden of having money. Mike says that he's going to go home.
Panel 2: As Gordon walks off into the distance, Mike thought-bubbles about what he's going to tell Elly when she asks where the other four bucks went.
Panel 3: He then thought-bubbles that he has no choice in the matter. He has to tell her the truth.
Panel 4: The truth was that he was mugged.
Summary: This is fairly similar to an arc that ran years later. What had happened is that Liz made the good-faith mistake of breaking the bag of milk she was to bring home and lied about it so as to avoid the inevitable lecture about how she's a heartless monster who breaks things to martyr pooooooor put-upon Elly. This is because it's not really about Mike getting taken for a ride by a conniving little git. It can't be because in Lynn's mind, the feelings and lives of children are absolutely meaningless and unimportant. What it's really about is that by getting conned, it makes ELLY look incompetent.