et they might amuse
themselves by swapping jack-knives or neckties, and these exchanges
would be completed or executed contracts and would possess, as we
shall soon see, every element of a contract.

Again, persons must be able, or COMPETENT, to make contracts. What
kind of ability or competency must a person have? Not every person can
make a contract, even though he may wish to do so. A MINOR, or person
less than twenty-one years of age, though he may be very wise and
weigh perhaps two hundred and fifty pounds, can make very few
contracts which the law regards as binding. In fact, the only
contracts that a minor can make for which he is bound are for
necessaries--clothing, food, and shelter. Nor can he make contracts
even for these things in unlimited quantities. A minor could not go
into a store and buy six overcoats and bind himself to pay for them.
The storekeeper must have common sense in selling to him and keep
within a reasonable limit. In one of the well-known cases a minor
bought a dozen pairs of trousers, half a dozen hats, as many canes,
besides a large supply of other things, and, refusing afterward to pay
the bill, the merchant sued him, and the jury decided that he must
pay. The case, however, was appealed to a higher court, which took a
different view of his liability. The judge who wrote the opinion for
the court said that the merchant must have known that the minor could
not make any personal use of so many trousers, canes, and hats, and
ought not to have sold him so many. In short, the court thought that
the merchant himself was a young minor in intelligence and ought to
have known better than to sell such a bill to a person under age.

Of course it is not always easy to answer this question, WHAT ARE
NECESSARIES? Much depends on the condition of the person who buys. A
merchant would be safe in selling more to a minor living in an
affluent condition of life than to another living in a much humbler
way. Quite recently the question has been considered whether a
dentist's bill is a necessity, and the court decided that it was a
proper thing for a minor to preserve his teeth and to this end use the
arts of the dentist. Again, is a bicycle a necessity? If one is using
it daily in going to and from his work, surely it is a necessity. But
if one is using it merely for pleasure a different rule would apply,
and a minor could not be compelled to pay for it. Cigars, liquors,
theatre tickets are luxuries; so th