Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/38

 it did not affect me one way or the other, and consequently I paid very little attention to what they said. My time was fully taken up with the strange things I saw around me.

At last, to my great satisfaction, the boys concluded that they could "fix up" the matter while sailing about the lake in the Young Republic, better than they could while sitting by the table, especially if they could find some boat to race with, so they bolted out of the room with much noise and racket, and left the house, banging the hall door loudly behind them. Then I turned to speak to the object that occupied the recess on the other side of the room, and found that he was quite as willing to make my acquaintance as I was to make his.

"Hallo!" said he; and I afterward learned that that is the way in which school boys and telephones always greet each other.

"Hallo!" said I, in reply. "Who are you? if I may be so bold as to inquire."

"Oh, that's all right," answered my new acquaintance, cheerfully. "Everybody who sees me for the first time wants to know all about me. I don't suppose I am much to look