The storekeeper's face fell, and he closed the dirty ledger with a slam.
"All right, Ralph, suit yourself. But if you starve to death, don't lay it at my door, mind that!"
"No fear of my starving," returned the boy, lightly, and he left the store.
Uriah watched him from behind the dirty windows of his place. He heaved a big sigh as he saw Ralph enter the opposition store just across the way, and groaned aloud when the youth came out with half-a-dozen packages under his arm, and started for home.
"I guess I put my foot into it when I sided with the squire," he meditated. "But it had to be done. Anyway, the squire's trade is bigger than the Nelsons', so I'm better off than I might be," and, thus consoling himself, he went back to his accounts.
To Uriah Dicks all such matters were questions of dollars and cents, not of justice.
When Ralph arrived home, he told his mother of the storekeeper's offer.
"Do you think I did wrong in refusing?" he asked.
"No, Ralph; I would have done the same."
"I fancy I can strike a job that will pay better—anyway, I am going to try."