"Aren't you willing to take my word for it, Mr. Westmore?" fumed Montgomery Jadell.
"I'd like to hear what my son has to say. You are sure it was not an accident?"
"I am—and he must get me a new hat very soon!" grumbled the school principal, and stalked out of the store exactly as he had stalked off of the ball field. He was very set in his ways and never willing to listen to another person's side of a story.
When Joe and Harry returned home they had several chores to do, and having finished these they washed up for supper. They had scarcely finished when their father entered.
"Harry, Mr. Jadell has told me a pretty bad story about you," said Mr. Westmore. "What have you to say for yourself?"
"It was purely an accident, father," was the youth's reply, and told of the affair exactly as it had occurred.
"You are sure that you did not intend to hit him?"
"I did not."
"He was in very bad humor over it."
"He is always in a bad humor lately," put in Joe.