“That’s mighty nice of him, but I’m afraid he was boosting us too high,” replied Bob, trying hard not to show how pleased he was.
“That fellow at the station has forgotten more about radio than we ever knew,” added Joe modestly, but in his heart he was as pleased at the praise as Bob was. It is always nice to receive commendation from some one who is an authority.
“You’re very modest,” teased Edna gaily. “But when dad says anything nice about anybody he generally means it. He doesn’t say nice things very often——” She caught a glance of reproof from her mother and bit her lip penitently.
“You mustn’t say unkind things about your father, Edna,” said Mrs. Salper, gently. “You know he is worn to death with business worries. If we could once succeed in making him forget his responsibilities, he would be as jolly and fun-loving as he used to be.”
“Yes, dad used to be no end of fun,” said Ruth, adding, with a fierce little frown and a clenching of her fists; “I just wish I could get hold of whoever’s worrying him so. I’d give them something to worry about for a change.”
Then, seeming to realize that the boys might not be interested in her personal affairs—though as a matter of fact they were interested, extremely so—the girl tactfully turned the conversation to something which she thought might interest them.
“Could we see your radio set?” she asked, impulsively. “We’d just love to have you tell us about it. As much as we could understand,” she added, with a smile for the boys.
Mrs. Salper protested feebly, but so eager were the boys to show off their set to the girl radio fans that her opposition was overcome almost at once.
Then followed a happy hour during which the radio boys talked learnedly of condensers and amplifiers and different kinds of receivers until the admiration of the girls mounted almost to awe.
“My, but it sounds worse than Greek!” cried Edna Salper once, as she bent absorbedly over the apparatus that worked such miracles and bore such high-sounding names. “This is the tuning apparatus, isn’t it?” she asked, gingerly touching the wire coil. “It seems almost impossible that you can tune to any wave length with this thing, just as the piano tuner can tune the wires of his instrument to the proper sound vibration.”