"Stop! stop!" stormed the squire. "I will have no quarrel in my house! Nelson, don't you know it is all wrong to fight on the bridge?"
"I didn't fight. I stopped your son when he refused to pay toll, that was all."
"I do not believe it."
"Believe it or not, it's true. But I came here for another purpose than to speak of the quarrel, as you know. I want Percy to make good the twenty dollars which belonged to me."
"I ain't got your twenty dollars—never had them!" blustered the aristocratic bully. "If you say I have, I'll pitch you out of the house!"
"Gently, Percy——"
"I don't care, father. It makes me mad to have this upstart speak to me in this fashion!"
"I know it does, but control yourself, my son. We will find a way to punish him at another time."
"Can't you have him discharged? He ain't fit to be the tender of the bridge; he's so insulting!"
"Perhaps," returned the squire, a sudden idea flashing across his mind.