nd got into our house and was settled, one day Bob
Pendleton came to see me. He said he'd come to call--that's the word he
used. You see right in front of our house was Mr. Montgomery's house--an
awful big brick house, with a big yard; and the back of it was in front
of our house with a tall hedge; but there was a place to go through the
hedge, through a grape arbor up to the house, and around to the front
yard. Next to Mr. Montgomery's yard was Bucky Gum's pasture where he
kept his cows. But if you stood down by the pasture away from Mr.
Montgomery's hedge, you could look across and see Mr. Pendleton's fine
brick house where Bob, this boy, lived. Mr. Pendleton kept a store and a
bank and was awful rich; and when Bob came to call on me my ma was
tickled most to death. She wanted me to have nice friends, boys who
would grow up and be prominent in the world. And when Bob first came she
went to the door and let him in and then came to me and made me wash and
comb my hair. So I went in and here was Bob.

He had on a new suit and shiny shoes and a bow necktie, and he had a
little ring on his finger. But he was so thin that he had to stand up
twice to make a shadow. So he set there and nothin' much was said. I was
afraid to ask him to swing, or to go to the barn, or anything. By and
by he asked me if I had read "Little Men." I said no. Then he asked me
if I had read the Pansy series. I said no to that; then he asked me if I
subscribed to "Our Youth," which was a boys' paper full of good stories
about nice girls and boys. I'd never heard of it. Then he asked me if I
liked to play ball, and of course I did. And he said he had a ball
ground in his orchard and to come over some time. Myrtle, my sister,
liked nice boys, but she thought Bob was not the right kind of nice. But
ma urged the friendship on me. And so it began.

And I must say Bob was a good boy, and I have no complaints to make; but
I didn't know Mitch then, and so didn't see the difference so much.
Well, Bob liked me and he kept havin' me over to his house. He had a big
yard with trees in it, and a fountain with a stone figure of a little
boy, not much clothes on, holdin' an urn. Bob's pa was the leadin'
member of the Baptist Church and awful strict; and as Mitch's father was
a Congregational preacher, Mr. Pendleton didn't like him on account of
differin' with him about baptism.

Bob's house was just full of fine things--oil paintings of his father
and mother, his s