“Hello, Hal! What luck?” called Walter cheerily as he approached.
“I don’t know as it’s any business of yours. You see I’m not buying ’em, anyway,” was the surly and bitter reply.
Walter flushed, and an angry retort rose to his lips, but with it came a vision of the picture of utter misery he had witnessed a few minutes before. He stepped forward and held out his hand.
“Don’t, Hal,” he pleaded. “Let’s be friends.”
“You don’t want me for a friend; nobody does,” growled the other.
“Hal, I came pretty near punching your head once, or trying to, anyway. Now I am coming back at you. When you say that I don’t want you for a friend you are not telling the truth. Now, are you going to punch my head or are you going to shake hands?” Walter once more extended his hand, all his good humor restored.
Slowly the other reached forth and gripped it. “I—I guess I’ll shake,” he said, a sheepish smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. Then he pushed back his hat and faced Walter squarely. “It’s mighty white of you, Walt,” he blurted out hurriedly. “I do want you for a friend. I guess I need friends if any fellow ever did. Nobody’s got any use for me back there,” nodding in the direction of the camp, “and I can’t get away, because I haven’t anywhere to go. You see, my folks are all in Europe for the summer. I’m stuck here, and I’ve got to stay.”
“I’m glad of it,” said Walter heartily.
“Wh-what do you mean?” demanded Hal.
“Just what I say,” replied the other. “I’m glad of it. You’ve got in wrong here with the camp. If you went away now you’d always be in wrong with the whole crowd. Maybe you think that if you got away and never came back it wouldn’t matter what the fellows think, but it would. They’d always remember you, not for what you really are but for what they think you are, and no matter how great a success you might make when you grow up you’d know all the time that a lot of people didn’t believe in you. You’ve made a lot of mistakes. Now you’ve got a chance to correct ’em right where you made ’em. You can’t forget ’em yourself, and don’t want to, but you can make the other fellows forget ’em; and they will, too, if you’ll give ’em a chance.