After You...

Jack was young, rich, and fond of girls. He hardly ever did any work, and spent most of his time enjoying himself.

One summer he bought a big motor-boat. As soon as it was ready to go to sea, he telephoned to one of the girls he had met somewhere, and invited her for a trip in his new motor-boat. It was the first of many successful invitations of this kind.

The way Jack used to invite a girl for a trip in his boat was like this : He would begin by saying, “Hullo, Laura (or whatever the girl’s name was). I have just bought a beautiful new motor-boat, and I would like to take you out for a trip in it.”

The girl’s answer was usually cautious, because everybody in that part of the country knew Jack’s reputation with girls. She would say something like this : “Oh, really? That’s nice. What name have given to the boat?”

Jack would then answer, “Well, Laura, I have named it after you.”

Of course, the girl would feel very proud that Jack had chosen her name for the boat out of the names of all his many girl-friends, and she would think that Jack must really love her. She would therefore be quite willing to accept his invitation to go for a trip in his motor-boat.

It would not be until she got down to the harbor and actually saw the boat that she would understand how cleverly Jack had tricked her. Because there in neat body letters on the boat she would see its name “AFTER YOU”.

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