with the
beard is goin' to marry, and he says he expects it 'll turn out the
best thing could have happened. They're goin' to live on a farm. There's
hunderds of cases like that, only you don't hear of more'n just a few
of 'em. People used to get married at sixteen, seventeen,
eighteen--anywhere in there--and never think anything of it at all.
Right up to about a hunderd years ago there were more people married at
those ages than there were along about twenty-four and twenty-five, the
way they are now. For instance, you take Shakespeare--"

William paused.

Mr. Genesis was scraping the hull of the miniature boat with a piece of
broken glass, in lieu of sandpaper, but he seemed to be following his
young friend's remarks with attention. William had mentioned Shakespeare
impulsively, in the ardor of demonstrating his point; however, upon
second thought he decided to withdraw the name.

"I mean, you take the olden times," he went on; "hardly anybody got
married after they were nineteen or twenty years old, unless they were
widowers, because they were all married by that time. And right here in
our own county, there were eleven couples married in the last six months
under twenty-one years of age. I've got a friend named Johnnie Watson;
his uncle works down at the court-house and told him about it, so it
can't be denied. Then there was a case I heard of over in--"

Mr. Genesis uttered a loud chuckle. "My goo'ness!" he exclaimed. "How
you c'leck all' dem fac's? Lan' name! What puzzlin' ME is how you
'member 'em after you done c'leck 'em. Ef it uz me I couldn't c'leck 'em
in de firs' place, an' ef I could, dey wouldn' be no use to me, 'cause I
couldn't rickalect 'em!"

"Well, it isn't so hard," said William, "if you kind of get the hang
of it." Obviously pleased, he plucked a spear of grass and placed it
between his teeth, adding, "I always did have a pretty good memory."

"Mamma says you're the most forgetful boy she ever heard of," said Jane,
calmly. "She says you can't remember anything two minutes."

William's brow darkened. "Now look here--" he began, with severity.

But the old darky intervened. "Some folks got good rickaleckshum
an' some folks got bad," he said, pacifically. "Young white germmun
rickalect mo' in two minute dan what I kin in two years!"

Jane appeared to accept this as settlement of the point at issue, while
William bestowed upon Mr. Genesis a glance of increased favor. William's
expression was