Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/87

 have been here ever since. Besides, in a little place like this, every body knows more about your business than you do yourself. I know who you are, and where you came from, and all about it."

"Then it was a bad change for you, was it?" said Ralph. "You don't like to live here? Neither do we."

"I don't blame you," said the clerk. "Wait until you get acquainted with some of these old-timers and find out what an exclusive lot they are, and you will dislike it worse than you do now. There are a few of them, especially the Toxophilites, as they call themselves, who try to monopolize all the fun there is going."

"Why don't you join them?" asked Tom.

"Because they won't let me—that's why."

"Then you must be George Prime."

"That's my name, and you are Tom Bigden, and you two are Loren and Ralph Farnsworth."

"You've hit it," answered Tom. "They wouldn't take us in either. They told us so not more than an hour ago. Why didn't you go to the party?"