"Oh, had you! Well, what then?"
"Oh, he told me you had talked to him and he had seen Leila and told her he was sorry. She never said a word to me. I told him that he ought to have apologized to me—too."
Rivers was amused. "Apologies are not much in fashion among Westways boys. What did he say?"
"Oh, just that he didn't see that at all—and then he said that he was going away this fall to study medicine, and some day when he was a doctor he would have a chance to get even with me, and wouldn't he dose me well. Then we both laughed, and—I shook hands with him. That's all, sir."
"Well, I am pleased. He is by no means a bad fellow, and as you know he is clever—and can beat you in mathematics."
"Yes, but I licked him well, and he knows it."
"For shame, John. I wish my Baptist friend's boy would do better—he is dull."
"But I like him," said John. "He is so plucky."
"There is another matter I want to talk about. I had a long conversation about you with your uncle the night before he left. I heard with regret that you want to go into the army."
"May I ask why?" said John, as he lay on the ground lazily fingering the pine-needles.