On the Stairs

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: novelties at his expense. And I never met a sedater taste in neckties. Three or four were hanging over the gas- jet, close to the window; they were all dark blues or grays, and most of them frayed. He expected a new one about Christmas; no hurry. Prom that window, across the back yard, we saw Johnny McComas, in a bright new red tie, busy at his own window. I waved my hand, and he waved back. Raymond looked at him, but made no special sign. Johnny was packing up his specimens and his postage-stamps, preparatory to the family heg- ira, though neither of us knew. Raymond, who might have asked for almost anything, asked for nothing. Johnny, who was in position to ask for next to nothing, asked for almost everything. He was constantly teasing his parents, so far as my observation went; and his teasing was a for