. "I didn't know you cared to go out with him," he added, to Jack,
with a toss of his head.

"Why shouldn't I go out with Randy?" asked Jack, quickly.

"Oh, I shouldn't care to go out with the son of a poor carpenter."

"See here, Bob Bangs, I consider myself as good as you," said Randy,
quickly.

"Humph!"

"Randy is all right, even if his father is a carpenter," said Jack.
"It's mean of you, Bob, to talk that way."

"Choose your own company and I'll choose mine," answered Bob Bangs,
loftily, and stalked away, his nose tilted high in the air.

Angry words arose to Randy's lips but he repressed them and said
nothing. In a moment more some goods on the dock hid the big boy from
view.

"Don't you care for what he says," said Jack, quickly. "He thinks a few
dollars are everything in this world."

"I didn't mind him--much, Jack."

"Wanted you to get out of my boat, didn't he?"

"Yes. He didn't know I was waiting for you."

"That was a good joke on him."

"I can't understand why he is so disagreeable."

"It was born in him," said Jack, as he leaped into the rowboat and
stowed away his fishing outfit. "His father is the same way and so is
his mother. They think that just because they have money everybody
else, especially a poor person, is dirt under their feet."

"Why, Jack, I guess your father is as rich as Mr. Bangs."

"Maybe he is."

"And you don't put on such airs."

"And I don't intend to. Money is a good thing to have, but it isn't
everything--that is what my father and mother say."

"Bob wouldn't want me out in his boat with him."

"Maybe you wouldn't like to go out with him either."

"You are right there. I am getting so I hate to speak to him."

"Well, I am getting that way, too. Every time we meet he tries to
impress it upon me that he is a superior person,--and I don't see it."

"Your father and his father have some business dealings, haven't they?"

"Yes, they are interested in the same iron company,--and from what
father says, I think they are going to have trouble before long."

"I hope your father comes out ahead."

"It is this way: Father has a controlling interest and Mr. Bangs is
doing his best to get it away from him. If Mr. Bangs can get control he
will, so father says, join the company of a larger concern, and then
father will be about wiped out and he won't get more than half of what
is really coming to him."

"But wouldn't that be fraud?"

"Yes, morally, but not legall