“‘Kids’! Indeed! I like that!” exploded Amy.
But her brother swept on, ignoring her objection: “No matter how many you have eaten, there is always room for one more. You and Amy, Jessie, must have another sundae on me.”
“Darry!” exclaimed Jessie Norwood. “I thought you and Burd went to his aunt’s.”
“And we came back. That is an awful place. There’s an uncle, too—a second crop uncle. And both uncle and auntie are vegetarians, or something. Maybe it’s their religion. Anyway, they eat like horses—oats, and barley, and chopped straw. We were there for two meals. Shall we ever catch up on our regular rations, Burd?”
“I’ve my doubts,” said his friend. “Say, Nick, bring me a plate of the fillingest thing there is on your bill of fare.”
“In just a minute,” replied the clerk, hopping around the other table to have Belle Ringold and her friends repeat their orders.
Belle had immediately begun preening when Darry and Burd came in. That the two college 100 youths were so much older, and that they merely considered Amy and Jessie “kids,” made no difference to Belle. She really thought that she was quite grown up and that college men should be interested in her.
“We had just finished, boys,” Jessie managed to say in a low tone. “We had not even paid for our sundaes.”
Darry and Burd just then caught sight of the punched check lying on the table and they both reached for it. There was some little rivalry over who should pay the score, but Darry won.
“Leave it to me,” he said cheerfully. “Girls shouldn’t be trusted with money anyway.”