As the two autos drew up, the occupants beheld, standing on the
steps of the store, Sidney Wilcox and Ida Giles. Jack halted his car
behind the Whirlwind.

"Hello there!" called out Ed. "Seems to me I'm bound to meet all my
friends to-day. How are you, Sid?"

Ed leaped from Jack's car and up the steps to greet Sid.

"Oh, I'm so-so," was the rather drawling answer. "But what's the
matter with you? Been clamming?"

"Not exactly," replied Ed, glancing down at the mud spots; "but I
caught something, just the same."

"So I see," responded Sid, chuckling at his wit. "Pity to take it
all, though. You should have left some for the turtles. They like
mud."

Jack, who followed Ed, said something in conventional greeting to
Ida. But the girl with Sid never turned her head to look in the
direction of the Whirlwind. Cora remarked on this in a low voice to
Isabel and Elizabeth.

"I hear that you are going in for--er--Wall Street," said Sid to Ed
in rather a sarcastic voice.

"Oh, no. Nothing like that. No chance for a lamb like me in Wall
Street. It's too much of a losing game."