waived his mother's references to the rain, his clothes, and
probable colds, and after one laden glance at Jane denoting a grievance
so elaborate that he despaired of setting it forth in a formal complaint
to the Powers--he fell into a state of trance. He took nourishment
automatically, and roused himself but once during the meal, a pathetic
encounter with his father resulting from this awakening.

"Everybody in town seemed to be on the streets, this evening, as I
walked home," Mr. Baxter remarked, addressing his wife. "I suppose
there's something in the clean air after a rain that brings 'em out. I
noticed one thing, though; maybe it's the way they dress nowadays, but
you certainly don't see as many pretty girls on the streets as there
used to be."

William looked up absently. "I used to think that, too," he said, with
dreamy condescension, "when I was younger."

Mr. Baxter stared.

"Well, I'll be darned!" he said.

"Papa, papa!" his wife called, reprovingly.

"When you were younger!" Mr. Baxter repeated, with considerable
irritation. "How old d' you think you are?"

"I'm going on eighteen," said William, firmly. "I know plenty of
cases--cases where--" He paused, relapsing into lethargy.

"What's the matter with him?" Mr. Baxter inquired, heatedly, of his
wife.

William again came to life. "I was saying that a person's age is
different according to circumstances," he explained, with dignity, if
not lucidity. "You take Genesis's father. Well, he was married when he
was sixteen. Then there was a case over in Iowa that lots of people
know about and nobody thinks anything of. A young man over there in Iowa
that's seventeen years old began shaving when he was thirteen and shaved
every day for four years, and now--"

He was interrupted by his father, who was no longer able to contain
himself. "And now I suppose he's got WHISKERS!" he burst forth. "There's
an ambition for you! My soul!"

It was Jane who took up the tale. She had been listening with growing
excitement, her eyes fixed piercingly upon William. "He's got a beard!"
she cried, alluding not to her brother, but to the fabled Iowan. "I
heard Willie tell ole Mr. Genesis about it."

"It seems to lie heavily on your mind," Mr. Baxter said to William. "I
suppose you feel that in the face of such an example, your life between
the ages of thirteen and seventeen has been virtually thrown away?"

William had again relapsed, but he roused himself feebly. "Sir?