"I've been thinking a little about this matter, too," said Charley, after a pause, "and I had about concluded we ought to pair off. But I'll be confounded, if I know which I like best! They're both nice girls."
"There isn't much choice," Ned replied. "If they were as different, now, as you and me, I'd take the blonde, of course; aw, and you'd take the brunette. But Hattie Chapman's eyes are blue, and her hair isn't black, you know; so you can't call her dark, exactly."
"No more than Laura is exactly light. Her hair is brown, more than golden, and her eyes are hazel. Hasn't she a lovely complexion, though? By Jove!"
"Better than Hattie's. Yet I don't know but Hattie's features are a little the best."
"They are. Now, honest, Ned, which do you prefer? Say either; I'll take the one you don't want. I haven't any choice."
"Neither have I."
"How will we settle?"
"Aw—throw for it?"
"Yes. Isn't there a backgammon board forward, in that locker, Thomas?"
The board was found, and the dice produced.