"Don't judge merely by appearances, Archie. Above all, remember those words of the Great Teacher, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.'"
"I KNOW BEST."
"So the choir treat is fixed for Thursday, and we're all going to the Crystal Palace! What jolly fun we shall have!"
The speaker was Walter Franklin, a village lad of eighteen. But Christopher Swallow, the friend to whom he addressed himself, a youth who looked rather older, did not receive the news with the pleasure Walter expected.
"The old Crystal Palace again!" he grumbled. "Bother! What's the good of going to the same place twice over? I call it foolery and rubbish."
"Oh, but the rector said that no one but you and three of the older men had been before; and when he asked them whether they would like anything else better, they said no. Benjamin Sorrell said that once for seeing all over such a big place was nothing, and he'd like to spend a week there."
"Let him, then; one day's enough for me. Of course, we must go as it's settled; but you won't catch me staying dawdling about, looking at the same old things over and over again as I see two years ago. I shall be off and enjoy myself somewhere else."
"But, Christopher, Mr. Richardson said most partic'lar we must all keep together or we should get lost; and we're all to wear red rosettes on our left shoulders, that we may know each other at a distance, if we should get separated by any accident."