“You don’t know anything about it,” retorted Mr. Norton angrily. “Your father was hard up, and that was the only way to get money. It was his plan, not mine. I have always been an honest man, even though I was poor.”
“Mr. Norton, you are a villain!” I cried in high indignation. “My father never did a willfully wrong action in his life, and I won’t allow you or any other man to say he did.”
“Come, come, don’t get on a high horse,” replied my guardian. “You know just how poor your father was. His estate is deeply in my debt, and I want the money paid. I have found out that there are other claims against this mill, and that will leave you without a penny. Now if you will only listen to me, I will put you in a way of getting so much that you can leave work alone for a good while to come.”
And the man placed his hand on my shoulder as if to thus persuade me to accede to his wishes.
I threw the hand off.
“Don’t you dare to touch me!” I cried. “You are a bad man, and I will have nothing to do with you. You may be my uncle, but you are so in law only, and not in my heart.”
“Take care!” stormed Mr. Norton, now thoroughly aroused. “I won’t allow any one, least of all a boy, to talk to me like that.”
“I don’t care. I never liked you from the start, and I want you to know it. I shall not consider you my guardian any longer.”
“You won’t, eh?”
“No, sir, I won’t.”