Page:Van Loan--Taking the Count.djvu/101



ILLY ALLISON was not exactly a black sheep nor yet a white one. Both colors were woven into the fabric of his char acter, the dark spots representing the bad im pulses and the white spots representing the good ones. The mixture was fairly even. The dark spots were very dark and the white spots very white; so that a moral snapshot of Billy Allison's soul would have resembled a piece of shepherd's plaid.

Billy avoided any struggles with his con- (ence and barred himself from taking credit lor the white spots by doing always and under all circumstances the first thing that came into his head. This system is not to be recommended to other young men with more money than they know how to spend.

"Billy is a queer proposition," said old Mr. Hawley, who had been Henry Allison's business associate and best friend. "I can't seem to make him out. There 's a fine lovable streak in the boy, but it lays right up against a streak of downright cussed worthlessness. What makes me so mad is that Billy can do a nice thing in as