Evan smiled, and picking up a stone threw it out into the lake. Something in his action interested the junior.
"Darn it," he said, "I don't know why I ever left home. I could have gone through all the colleges in the country if I had wanted to."
"Oh, well," said Nelson, carelessly, "a fellow gets certain experience in the bank that college men know nothing about. They get the baby taken out of them. They have to live in lonesome burgs and make up with uninteresting strangers. I suppose it all helps make a man of them."
"Give us a cig," said Henty; then—"Don't forget the girls, either. They're a great education."
Nelson was silent: he had graduated from that sort of thing.
"A fellow shouldn't string them, though, Austin," he said, thoughtfully.
To give valuable advice on matters of love one must have experience, but to get experience one must suffer and make others suffer; consequently, love-advice is undesirable from both experienced and inexperienced. In the first instance it makes the adviser inconsistent, and in the second case it is valueless.
"I've made up my mind I'll never trick the dear creatures," said A. P.
"You will if you stay in the bank."
"How's that?"