“I hope so. When I am a man I may go to California, just to see the country, but I prefer to stay at home now.”
“He has an old head on young shoulders,” said his mother complacently.
“It’s my birthday to-morrow, grandpa,” observed Rodney significantly.
“Is it?” asked Seth Tarbox. “How old are you?”
“Sixteen.”
“Well, well, I didn’t know you were getting on so fast. There’s a quarter for a birthday present.”
Rodney accepted the coin, but turned up his nose at his grandfather’s niggardliness, and expressed himself freely on the subject to his mother on the way home.
“What a mean old skinflint grandfather is!” he exclaimed. “Twenty-five cents, and he a rich man!”
“Hush, Rodney, don’t let any one hear you speak in that way!”
“But he is mean! you can’t deny it!”