Bertie saw that James was growing more and more angry every moment, but he kept his temper down admirably, and merely said,—
“If I were under no obligation to Mr. Whitman, I have pledged my word to stay with him for four years. To break it would be a lie: I have never told a lie, and I never shall.”
“Don’t tell me that; a man must lie once in a while, especially a poor man. There ain’t a man in the world but has lied, and you are lying when you say that.”
Scarcely had the words left his lips than he received a blow that sent him headlong across the back of an ox, that lay chewing his cud near by. An ox always rises first behind, and the startled animal jumping up, flung Blaisdell on to his neck, and still more frightened, rising forward, flung him from his horns, to which he clung, to the dung-heap; and the terror of the ox communicating itself to the rest of the cattle in the yard, they began to snort and curvet around the prostrate intruder.
“Be off with you, or I’ll break every bone in your carcass. It is you, and the likes of you, who have given redemptioners a bad name, and taken the bread out of a great many honest people’s mouths on the other side, who might have found good homes in this country.”
Blaisdell was a burly fellow, and ugly enough, but he had seen somewhat of James’ strength on the passage over, and had received unmistakable evidence that he was no longer the discouraged being who could be abused with impunity.
Oblivious of eggs, sitting hens, and leaving his hat full of eggs behind him, Bertie rushed into the house, seized his father and mother, hurried them into the parlor, and shutting the door, told them every word he had heard, and all he had witnessed.
“Well,” said Mrs. Whitman, turning to her husband, “you have got to the bottom now; you have found out what is in your redemptioner, and also in neighbor Wood’s.”
“Now, my son,” said the father, “you must not mention this to Peter, Maria, your grandfather, nor any one, and by all means not to James. Will you remember what I say?”
“Yes, father, I will; for I never had a secret to keep before, except some boy’s nonsense.”