. Baxter said. "She
might have been carried off by footpads if you three boys hadn't been
along to take care of her!"

But William persisted heroically. "Father--" he said. "Father, I have
come to--"

"What on earth's the matter with you?" Mr. Baxter ceased to fan himself;
Mrs. Baxter stopped rocking, and both stared, for it had dawned upon
them that something unusual was beginning to take place.

William backed to the start and tried it again. "Father, I have come
to--" He paused and gulped, evidently expecting to be interrupted,
but both of his parents remained silent, regarding him with puzzled
surprise. "Father," he began once more, "I have come--I have come
to--to place before you something I think it's your duty as my father
to undertake, and I have thought over this step before laying it before
you."

"My soul!" said Mr. Baxter, under his breath. "My soul!"

"At my age," William continued, swallowing, and fixing his earnest eyes
upon the roof of the porch, to avoid the disconcerting stare of his
father--"at my age there's some things that ought to be done and some
things that ought not to be done. If you asked me what I thought OUGHT
to be done, there is only one answer: When anybody as old as I am has
to go out among other young men his own age that already got one, like
anyway half of them HAVE, who I go with, and their fathers have already
taken such a step, because they felt it was the only right thing to
do, because at my age and the young men I go with's age, it IS the only
right thing to do, because that is something nobody could deny, at my
age--" Here William drew a long breath, and, deciding to abandon that
sentence as irrevocably tangled, began another: "I have thought over
this step, because there comes a time to every young man when they must
lay a step before their father before something happens that they would
be sorry for. I have thought this undertaking over, and I am certain it
would be your honest duty--"

"My soul!" gasped Mr. Baxter. "I thought I knew you pretty well, but you
talk like a stranger to ME! What is all this? What you WANT?"

"A dress-suit!" said William.

He had intended to say a great deal more before coming to the point,
but, although through nervousness he had lost some threads of his
rehearsed plea, it seemed to him that he was getting along well and
putting his case with some distinction and power. He was surprised and
hurt, therefore, to hear his father utter a w