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“Why—why, I’ve talked hardly half an hour with him altogether. He seemed to be good-natured.”

“Didn’t he ride his high horse for you?”

“Not much—very little,” said Sam. “Of course, he comes from a big city. And he’s been at big ‘prep’ schools. And he’s used to the rush, and crowds, and all that sort of thing. I don’t know, though, that he tried to rub it in—that we aren’t crowded here, I mean. And he did seem friendly—got to say that for him.”

“Up here for his health, isn’t he?” queried Step. “Gay life knocked him out, didn’t it?”

“He didn’t put it that way. He said he was rather run down, and so his folks shipped him up here to visit the Bateses—Mrs. Bates is his aunt, you know.”

“How long is he going to stay?”

“I don’t believe it’s settled.”

“Huh! He’s rigged out as if he were on a polar expedition.”

Sam’s lips twitched. “Well, he is outfitted pretty gorgeously.”

“I should say he was!”

“That’s nothing against him, though.”

Poke wagged his head sagely. “No; fine feathers don’t make fine birds, or spoil ’em either. When you take time and think about it——”