"No business of yours. If you don't let Tommy come with me, I will see Mr. Smithers, and upset the whole caboodle. Don't you forget it."
"You want to make him as bad as yourself, I know you do," she said, impetuously, "and I will not let him go."
"All right. I'll stay here till Smithers comes back from the dry-goods store where he is employed, and the chances are that he will kick the pair of you out when he hears what I have to say."
"Is this manly or just, Thomas?" she asked.
"Neither one nor the other; but I have to do something in New York this time, or I shall be sent up to the island for the winter," replied Thompson, looking piercingly at her with his one eye. "Take your choice."
"Come here, Tommy," said his mother.
"What is it, mamma?" he asked, taking her hand tenderly.
"Will you go with your father?"
"Yes, to save you, mamma," answered Tommy.
"Then go, and God be with you," she said, and rising, went to a handsome bureau, which she opened with a key.