Billy grinned. "I had to," he admitted. "I thought I could get some money from Uncle Monty, but he had gone away, so I had Mother's present charged to Father, and Father's present charged to Mother." "Frenzied finance!" cried Cosden, amused in spite of his desire to disparage the boy. "You are wasting your time in college; you should be in Wall Street." "Your advice ought to be good, Mr. Cosden," agreed Billy, "for you certainly know how to make your money work overtime. I can always tell when Uncle Monty gives me any of the tired cash he wins out of you from the gratitude it shows for getting a little rest." Cosden did not like Billy's come-backs, and he did not like the amusement which he saw restrained in Merry's face. Still, he accepted the responsibility in large measure for putting himself on the boy's level. "I'd like to have charge of your business education," he said significantly. "It may come to that," the boy said with a total lack of enthusiasm. "That's the one real threat Uncle Monty always holds over me." "You are impertinent--" Cosden realized that the ragging was going too far. "Who began it?" was the retort. "Who is going to invite me to have some strawberries and cream?" Merry interrupted, feeling it to be her mission to come to the rescue, and recognizing Billy's mistake in antagonizing so close a friend of his uncle. Billy was on his feet in an instant, but Cosden was ahead of him. "I know the place," Merry said. "You see, I'm the old settler here, so I'll show you all the attractions. Think of strawberries and cream in January!--Won't you go ahead of us, Mr. Cosden, and ask the boy to put a table out on the piazza? It will be lovely there." As Cosden moved out of earshot she turned to her companion. "You must not upset him like that, Billy," she reproved him firmly; "your uncle will never forgive you." "He has no right to butt in on us," the boy protested gloomily. "But he's here, and you must be civil to him. Think how much older he is than you are, and you're quarreling with him as if he were your own age." "Oh, I'll be civil to him if he'll only can his grouch. Why, he got sore with me for kidding him about his age, yet you noticed how old he is yourself." "He isn't old, Billy. Why, he's younger than Mr. Huntington, isn't he?" "Perhaps he is; but Uncle Monty always makes you feel that he's your own age. I never think of him any differently than I do of any of my other pals. But Mr. Cosden--ugh!" "I know, Billy; but you don't want to say anything that will queer you with your uncle, do you?" Billy looked at her quizzically before he replied, then his broad, good-natured grin replaced the frown. "I get you, Stevie--what's the feminine for Steve, anyhow? You mean that a fellow ought not to make _pâté de foie gras_ out of the goose that lays the golden eggs.--Say, Merry, you're wonderful, you are,--simply wonderful!" * * * * * IX