Joshua uttered a dissatisfied "Hm!" at the mention of Mr. Fewster's name. Dan understood it, for Joshua had contracted what Dan said was an unreasonable dislike for Solomon Fewster. Now, in reply to a remonstrance from Dan, Joshua said,-- "But you don't like him, Dan." "I don't know that," said Dan, considering. "When you put it to me so plainly, I am rather inclined to say I do like him; for I cannot give a reason for not doing so. I _can_ give a reason for liking him; he buys my birds"-- "And sells them at a profit, I'll be bound." "Perhaps; he has a right to do so, if he pleases. I did think at first that he bought them for himself, but of course I was mistaken. However, whatever he does with them, he buys them and pays for them: that's enough for me. You could give as good a reason for liking him. He was kind to you when you were ill." "Oh, yes! brought me jellies and things"-- "And you ate them and relished them," said Dan, laughing. "I didn't know that he had brought them, or I wouldn't have touched them. I remember in one of our coasting-trips we had a passenger on board who wrote for newspapers, and who was said to be a very clever man. Certainly he talked like one. He used to talk to me, as much perhaps because I was a good listener, as for any other reason. Well, a favorite subject with him was what he called magnetic sympathy. He would just have suited you, Dan! He said that the natural magnetism which makes persons like or dislike one another, without apparent reason, is never wrongly directed." "A kind of instinct," remarked Dan reflectively. "He said, too, that as there are certain things in chemicals that won't mix, being opposed in their natures, so there are persons who have natural antipathies"-- "And won't mix--like you and Mr. Fewster," interpolated Dan. "Just so. Besides that, I have a good many little reasons for not liking Mr. Fewster. "Firstly," prompted Dan. "He never looks me in the face." "Secondly." "He has a horribly smooth voice." "Thirdly." "He has flat feet--ugly flat feet. I shall always hate men with flat feet. Then every thing about him shifts and shuffles. But don't let us talk about him any more. I can't keep my temper when he is in my thoughts." The conversation drifted into other subjects, and Solomon Fewster was dismissed. It was Dan's whim to have all his birds on a table for Joshua's inspection on the morning of his friend's departure. "Although we are men now, Jo," he said, "I should wish us to keep our boyish fancies fresh and green always in our hearts. There is plenty of room for them, notwithstanding that life is a more serious thing to us than it was."