And the next time there was a trip to Minneola, John said as the young people were seated comfortably for the return trip, "Molly, I heard you said that I was a pig to do all the driving, and not let you and Bob have a chance.

Was that true ?" "No--but do you want to know who did say it ?" answered Molly, and Jane Mason looked straight ahead and cut in with, "Molly Culpepper, if you say another word, I'll never speak to you as long as I live." But she glanced down at Barclay, who caught her eye and saw the smile she was swallowing, and he cried: "I don't believe you ever said it, Molly,--it must have been some one else." And when they had all had their say,--all but Jane Mason,--John saw that she was crying, and the others had to sing for ten minutes without her, before they could coax away her temper.

And crafty as he was, he did not know it was temper--he thought it was something entirely different.
For the craft of youth always is clumsy.

The business of youth is to fight and to mate.

Wherever there is young blood, there is "boot and horse," and John Barclay in his early twenties felt in him the call for combat.