"I would, for one," said the doctor, laughing.
"I don't believe it, doctor," cried Harry. "You wouldn't like to be always kept down."
"Perhaps not; boys never do. They're too stupid."
"What!" cried Harry.
"Too stupid," said the doctor again, while Mr. Kenyon lay back in his creaking cane chair with his eyes half closed, listening, with an amused expression of countenance. "Why, I was as stupid as you are, Hal, at your age."
"But you did not think so," retorted Hal.
"Of course I did not. I did not know any better. I could not see that by being a thorough boy for so many years, and being boyish and thinking as a boy should think, I should naturally grow into a thorough manly man."
"I don't quite understand you, sir," said Harry rather distantly.
"But I'm speaking plainly enough, Hal. Come, confess, my lad; you want to be a man, and to be treated as if you were one?"
Harry hesitated.