“Yes, I suppose so. We talked baseball a good deal, I guess.”
Nell’s nose wrinkled. “Baseball! Is that all you could find to talk of? Did you tell him what Mr. York said about you going to college?”
Sam shook his head. “No. I guess that wouldn’t interest him much.”
“But you ought to. Maybe he might know of someone who would help you or—or something, Sam.”
“I don’t believe so. Anyway, I don’t want to—to know folks just so’s they can help me, do I? He’s coming to see us play Lynton to-morrow. And he wants me to go to the Country Club with him some day and learn golf.”
“Well, I think you got on splendidly,” said Nell delightedly. “Everyone says he’s awfully smart, Sam, and I guess he’s beginning to get quite a practice. I know I do three times as much work for him as I did at first. I’m sure he will be a splendid man for you to know.”
“I don’t want to know him just because he might do something for me,” objected her brother. “Folks can be friends for—for other reasons, can’t they?”
“Of course, but there’s no harm in having friends that are influential, Sam,” replied Nell wisely. “Folks who get on, I notice, cultivate friends who can help them. That’s plain common sense, Sam.”
“Plain common selfishness, you mean,” he answered. “All folks can’t do that sort of thing, because look at the people who have been nice to me lately. Much good I could do them!”
“I’m not so sure,” replied Nell thoughtfully, smiling a little. “There are lots of ways to help a person, Sam. Now, that Mr. York, I dare say you helped him.”