“Billy, my lad, I want to give you some confidential advice. You went out riding with the superintendent yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Billy.
“But you’re the office boy, just the same, this morning?”
“Sure, Uncle John,” answered Billy.
“I thought you’d be clear on that,” said Uncle John, beaming with pride. “I thought you’d be clear on that!”
Billy began the day as an office boy, dusting and sharpening pencils and sorting the mail.
Miss King came in, looking cool and pretty in her white office dress, with a bunch of sweet peas in her hand.
“Beautiful, aren’t they, William?” she said holding them up in the light. “See how the lavender ones have pink in them, and the pink have white, and the white are just tinted with pink, so they all blend together. I always pick some leaves, too; they’re such a soft, cool green.”
“Do you suppose,” asked Billy, “that they’d grow in a yard—just a common yard?”
“These grew in our back yard,” answered Miss King. “I’ll give you some seed next year.”