xpectedly and with such force
that Billy was taken by surprise.

"Oh, ho!" Billy cried. "So that's the way the land lies! Now you've said
a mouthful. This is a case of mutual admiration! Uncle Monty told us the
other night that you were the finest girl he ever saw."

"He did!" Merry cried, the blood rushing into her cheeks and her face
aglow with pleasure. "I wish I thought he really meant it!"

"He meant it all right," Philip corroborated. "Mr. Huntington doesn't
make mouth-bets. He was calling me down for saying that you were just
like other girls."

"Were you so ungallant as that?" Thatcher asked. "Whatever else
happens, Phil, we must stand up for the family."

"Of course," he admitted; "but Billy was talking about Merry in
superlatives as usual, and I was trying to quiet him down."

"Phil is doing his best to put me in wrong again," Billy protested. "Now
I'll tell you just what happened and you can judge for yourselves: I was
telling Uncle Monty how happy I was to be invited here for Easter, and
how glad I should be to see you all--"

"You never said a word about any one but Merry," Philip interrupted.

Billy looked vindictively at his friend and then smiled sheepishly.

"I meant all of you, of course. Then Phil tried to jolly me about caring
for girls and for Merry in particular--"

"Don't be foolish, Billy!" Merry exclaimed.

"My! but it's hard to tell a story here, but I'm going to do it if I
burst a blood-vessel! Uncle Monty agreed with me, and then said that
Merry was the finest girl he ever saw. That from him is some praise,
because he never cuts in on girls at all; but you've made a hit with
him, Merry, and you might as well know it."

"I'm glad he hasn't forgotten me," she said quietly, but the color
remained in her face after the conversation turned upon other topics.

"What I said a moment ago isn't 'knocking,' as you call it, Billy," Mrs.
Thatcher resumed; "it is experience. We older folk know from what we've
seen, and from what we've been through, the dangers young people run
during the inflammable age; so we sound the warning. You are at that age
now, Billy, so your friends are trying to protect you. Philip apparently
hasn't arrived there yet, but he will; and then we'll try to protect him
from the idea that the 'only girl' is the one he happens to fancy while
the period lasts."

"You're making me look like a flivver!" the boy said with mortification
in his voice; "and before Merry, too!