Chester asked reprovingly:
“Why didn’t you let us know about this before?”
“Ye didn’t ask me, and what could be the difference if ye didn’t find it out? Ye wouldn’t have larned the same if Nora and her mither hadn’t insisted that I should entertain them, as I tried to do.”
“You are a queer make-up,” replied Alvin, with a laugh.
“Since ye are the leader, Captain, of yer quartette at school, it’s up to ye to obleege the company wid something in their line.”
Nora added her entreaties.
“We know you can do very well, Alvin, though of course not half so well as Mike, for nobody can do that,” was the naïve argument of the miss.
“No, sir,” said Alvin emphatically, and, assuming deep solemnity, he raised his hand. “I vow that I will never, never sing in Mike’s presence. I can stand a joke as well as most persons, but that is the limit. Here’s Chester, however. He will be glad to give Mike a few lessons.”
The fun of it was that Chester could not sing the chromatic scale correctly if his life were at stake. He was not rattled by the request.
“Mike, can you play the accompaniment to ‘Greenville’?” he asked.