Page:Greatest Short Stories (1915).djvu/225

Rh There ain’t any use of my trying to be like Daniel now when he’s got eleven years the start. Whoop! There’s a dog-fight! Hear ’em! It's Joe Casey’s dog—I know his bark!"” With these words my nephew snatched his Glengarry bonnet from the table and bolted downstairs to see the fun.

“What will become of him?” said Lu hopelessly; “he has no taste for anything but rough play; and then such language as he uses! Why isn’t he like Daniel?”

“I suppose because his Maker never repeats himself. Even twins often possess strongly marked individualities. Don’t you think it would be a good plan to learn Billy better before you try to teach him? If you do you’ll make something as good of him as Daniel; though it will be rather different from that model.”

“Remember, Ned, that you never did like Daniel as well as you do Billy. But we all know the proverb about old maids’ daughters and old bachelors’ sons. I wish you had Billy for a month—then you’d see.” “I'm not sure that I’d do any better than you. I might err as much in other directions. But I’d try to start right by acknowledging that he was a new problem, not to be worked without finding the value of ‘x’ in his particular instance. The formula which solves one boy will no more solve the next one than the rule of three will solve a question in calculus—or, to rise into your 222