"Why! you let Felix in the very first time he came up, didn't you?
That's funny enough! But dinner is ready, and papa has come, and Katie
is going to ring the bell before we come down, if we don't hurry; and
you know papa don't like to have us late."
"I'll explain about the magnifying some other time, then, Felix," said
Johnny; and they all went down-stairs. Johnny forgot to lock his door
when he went out. And when they reached the next floor, Sue reminded
him of it.
"Never mind," replied Johnny: "I guess there won't any one go up before
I do."
As soon as they entered the dining-room, Felix said to his uncle, who
was just sitting down at his place,--
"Uncle Frank, Johnny's got to have a bicycle right off: he's been riding
mine around finely this morning, and he likes it ever so much."
"Ah!" replied Mr. Le Bras. "Is that so, Johnny?"
"Part of it is so; it's so that I rode on Felix's bicycle, and that I
like it: but I haven't got to have one right off, because, in the first
place, I don't suppose you would feel rich enough to buy me one; and in
the next place, I couldn't have one if you did; because I am an
Independent, and it would be spending money for amusement which I did
not earn."
"But it would not be your spending it, if I made you a present of a
bicycle; it would be my spending money for my amusement or pleasure or
some other reason: I am not an Independent, and even if I were, I have
earned my own money."
This was such an entirely different aspect of the case, that Johnny was
quite surprised.
"Why, I didn't think of that," he said.
"You see, lawyers can look at matters from a good many aspects,"
remarked Mrs. Le Bras, who had been inclined to think, as Johnny did,
that so expensive and unnecessary an article as a bicycle would
interfere with his being an Independent.
"But then," said Johnny, "of course you are not able to buy me a
bicycle; and, if you are, you probably won't think it best for me to
have one."
"You are wrong in both instances. To be sure, I am not able to buy you
a bicycle as a mere amusement; but if a bicycle will save me doctors'
bills on your account, or have a tendency to aid in your becoming a
strong, able-bodied man, it would be money in my pocket, now and for
years to come, to get you one. It would save me considerable worry,
too, if you could be diverted from your books, and engaged in open-air
exercise, far more than you have heretofore been inclined. Yes, Johnny,
if you want a bicycle, go down street with me after dinner, while you
are in that mind, and I'll fit you out. But remember, after I have
spent so much for the sake of your health, you must not let it become an
unnecessary expense to me instead of a great saving of money, by not
using the bicycle more or less, every day, when it is reasonably
pleasant."
At first, Johnny was so astonished and grateful and happy, that he could
not reply; but Felix said,--
"There! I knew he'd do it right straight off, Johnny! That's just the
way my father does."
Mr. Le Bras laughed at this.
"Johnny is not so used to having what he wants at the first hint," he
said; "but, in this case, he happens to want just what I have been
wishing he would ask for, and so it comes easy."
Johnny went down street with his father after dinner, and came back on
his own bicycle, almost too happy to express his delight at the
acquisition.