young----" began the man, but William cut him
short with, "Save your breath, Scotty, I know more about myself than
you can ever guess." And then changing his tone, he asked sharply, "Do
you own this place?"

"Miss Whimple is the owner, young man, and I'm thinking----"

"Don't--don't get to thinkin'. It'll stop the grass-cutting if you do;
but seeing that you don't own the place I guess it's no good asking you
what you'll take for it----"

"Ye young----" began the man, but whatever else he might have said he
kept to himself, for at that moment a woman appeared at the front
entrance of the house and called, "John, ye'll be leaving the laddie
alone--Miss Whimple's expectin' him."

William walked up to the woman, lifted his cap, and asked in his best
manner, "That gentleman back there a relative of yours?" She smiled at
the audacity of it perhaps, but answered, "Aye, the gowk's marrit till
me, but I'm sometimes feared I made a mistake takin' peety on him.
Will ye come in--if your name happens to be Tur'r'rnpike."

"Well, it's something like that," answered William cordially as he
stepped inside, "but it don't often get so many 'r's' slung into it."

Miss Whimple appeared in the hallway and extended a hand to William,
who squeezed it heartily and hoped the lady was well. She was, she
said.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it," said William.

"Umph--it doesn't take the boys long to follow the example of the men.
Now, you don't really care a cent about my health, and you know it!"

"You're wrong, Miss Whimple," he answered, and there was earnestness in
his tone. "I like people I know to be well--most of them anyway."

"You don't care whether the others are or not?"

"Well, some of 'em--some of 'em. You see there's a few wouldn't know
what to do with themselves if they was well, and the others--well,
never mind 'em."

That was a rare luncheon. William ate heartily and praised the
cooking, two things that pleased both Miss Whimple and the maid. "I'm
good and hungry," he said by way of explanation, "and Pa always says it
ain't no disgrace to be hungry, and it's only a chump what won't eat
all he can when he gets next to it. There's enough as can't get what
they want to eat, he says, when they need it most, without anybody's
what's hungry playing manners when they can get it."

He liked Miss Whimple's direct manner of speech and her habit of
insisting upon answers to her determined questioning. It was in answer
t