oming to visit me next week whom I
want you to know and who wants to know you. He is an unusual character.
I wish you would show him something of what Harvard life is to-day, and
when you get acquainted tell me what you think of him."

"I should be glad to meet any friend of yours, Mr. Huntington," the boy
answered.

"He has a greater claim on you than simply as my friend," Huntington
continued. "He was also a friend of your mother's, years ago, and while
we were in Bermuda he showed us all a great deal of attention. He lives
there."

"You mean that Hamlen chap?" Billy asked. "Is he really coming here?
He's a dead one!"

"Don't let Billy's remarks prejudice you, Philip," Huntington urged.
"Hamlen is a classmate of mine who has passed through some unfortunate
experiences. He has lived by himself ever since he graduated, seeing
hardly any one, and he will find much that is unusual when he returns to
Boston and Cambridge after his long exile. He is a real man, Philip, and
I want you to help me bring him back into the present again. Will you do
it?"

"I'll try,--gladly," was the hearty answer. "It sounds like a pretty big
contract, but if I can really help I shall be glad to do it."

"I know you will," Huntington said; "I was sure of it."

"Why don't you ask me?" Billy demanded. "Why go out of the family?"

"You may come into it later, but I want his first impressions to be
favorable."

"Stung!" Billy cried, laughing. "But I don't care. I don't care what
happens now, for Phil has asked me to spend the Easter recess with him
in New York, and I shall see Merry again."

"So it is still 'Merry,' is it?" Huntington asked, looking at him with
an expression which any one other than a boy would have noticed. "By
this time I thought there might have been a dozen others."

"Merry is still the one best bet," Billy insisted. "Phil here doesn't
know what a cinch it is to have a sister like that."

"I believe it's because of Merry that you like me," Phil declared, half
seriously.

"Well," Billy said guardedly, "it may have been the fact that you were
her brother that first attracted me--"

"Why, you never saw her until we'd known each other several months--"

"We were acquainted before that," was the admission; "but I really came
to know you after you introduced me to her. That, Phil, was the best
thing you ever did. It was after I met Merry that I discovered that you
were the finest old scout in the world."

"You ma