"

"Of course," said Billy. "That was just the way it was, except that
_I_ had just reached the landing on _my_ way up, when you handed me
the collar. _You_ couldn't have just reached the landing, because if
you had we would have been going up the stairs together, side by
side, and we were not doing that. _I_ was going up the stairs, and
just as I reached the landing you came from somewhere and handed me
the collar."

"Isn't that what I said?" asked Kitty sweetly. "It amounts to the
same thing, anyway, doesn't it? I had the collar, and you got it. I
suppose you paid the duty on it?"

"Me?" said Billy. "Not much! I didn't bring it into the house; you
brought it in. You have to pay the duty."

"I pay the duty on your collar?" laughed Kitty. "Well, I should
think I would not! I went down and got it for you, and that was
nothing but an act of kindness that anybody would do for anybody
else. You can pay your own duties."

"Oh, I sha'n't pay a duty on it!" scoffed Billy. "I didn't want the
collar. I didn't need it, and I refused to bring it into the house
on principle. I don't believe in tariff duties. I'm a free trader. I
wouldn't smuggle, and I wouldn't pay duty, and so I left it outside.
You should have left it there. You didn't leave it there, and so it
is your duty to pay the duty."

"Never!" declared Kitty.

For a few minutes they were silent, and Billy looked glumly at the
street. Then he cheered up suddenly. He looked at Kitty and smiled.

"I'll tell you what let's do!" he exclaimed. "Let's go out under the
tree and talk it over. We'll go out under the tree and talk it all
over. That is the only way we can settle it."

"It is settled now," said Kitty. "I don't think it needs any more
settling."

Billy beamed upon her cheerfully.

"Well," he said, "let's go out under the tree and--and unsettle it."

For a moment Kitty seemed to hesitate, but that was only for Billy's
good, lest he think she yielded to his whims too readily. Then she
went, and draped herself gracefully upon the sweet, dry grass, and
Billy sat himself cross-legged near her.

"Now, what do you think of this Domestic Tariff business, anyway?"
he asked.

"I think it is the silliest thing I ever heard of," said Kitty
frankly. "I never heard of a man with real sense conceiving such a
thing. As if such a lot of nonsense is needed to save a few dollars
for an education that isn't to come about for sixteen years or so!
And the idea of making